The life I was meant to live
by LadyBuggHarmonyyy
Summary: Edward never comes back after he leaves Bella in the woods. She starts a new life, finds her mate, and comes into her own. She and her new family run into the Cullens years later. Now that she's back in their lives, some of them want her to stay. This is my first ever story! R&R B/F B/D J/A
1. Chapter 1

Isabella Swan had been sitting on the forest floor for hours now. Her boyfriend had dumped her after school today. That wasn't important. She'd gotten over it the second he said the words "I'm leaving you." out loud. One of the main lessons she took away from the tragedy that was her parent's love story, was to never hold someone back if they didn't want to be there. If they say they don't want you, let them go. They don't deserve your affection if they aren't going to appreciate it.

Edward Cullen wasn't her first boyfriend. She'd had a few relationships at the beginning of her high school career. Edward wasn't really her type. He wasn't horrible, but the most appealing quality of his was his immortality. Bella had always wanted more out of her life. She spent her time with her nose in a book, escaping to other worlds filled with drama and fantasy, wishing that her life could be half as exciting. Then one day, her wish came true. She meets amazing people with incredible stories. She discovered a whole new reality to the world she'd been living in. She was at the center of vicious battles, she was hunted and protected by fighters of all kinds. It was everything she'd dreamed of. She soaked up every bit of information like a sponge and had a plan for the future. She would graduate and be turned by Edward and become a member of the Cullen Coven. She was sure after she'd explored the world on her own, that they would understand her choice to leave and wish her well. She knew that it might not go as seamless as she planned, but by that point, she would be a newborn vampire, and there would be nothing they could do to stop her.

Now everything was ruined. Not only was her ex-boyfriend leaving town with the rest of his family to never see her again, but the whole reason for their swift departure was because Edward was terrified of the idea of her becoming one of them. She's cut her finger on a birthday present, which sent Jasper into a frenzy. They fought to keep him under control, and made the situation worse by accident. She watched them leave the house one by one, not able to stand to be in the same room as her bleeding arm. She joked with Carlisle about how better everything would be when her humanity and fragility no longer slowed the family down. His response was disheartening, but she figured she'd have time to get him on board with the idea.

Now she was stuck in her old world. Her life would not begin with her death after high school, her life would continue until her death was her end. She would never be as intelligent, talented, world traveled, beautiful and powerful as them. They would always be the God-like creatures in her life story. She would never get to be all that she could be.

Her mind had been spinning for possible loopholes. Her first idea was to go out looking for a vampire and hope that they stopped long enough to turn her. She had no idea where to even find another vampire, outside of the Volturi kingdom in Italy, and that was the last resort. She knew coming to the kings would put the Cullens in trouble and that was the last thing she wanted to do. Another idea that was to encounter the nomads again. She knew that Laurant was with the Denali's, whom she refused to seek out since they were an extension of the Cullen family. She thought that Victoria might show up again because Bella was the reason that her mate had died, but she'd be more likely to trail the Cullens than to come and find her. She was in a cycle that left her alone and curled up at the base of a tree with only a thin yellow raincoat on. Her clothes where soaked from the hour and a half of drizzle that had passed. Her lips were blue and tonight happened to be a new moon. There was nothing in the sky to light her surroundings.

A wave of hot air blew into her face and shocked her awake. The smell pulled old memories of a neighbors dog that she played with when she was younger. She remembered the smell of the dog's breath that lingered and caused her to have to take a bath before dinner. As her eyes adjusted, Bella took note of the dark shape in front of her. It was huge. It was the biggest wolf she'd ever seen. It was radiating heat and letting out heavy pants of hot air. Bella lifted her head and found herself looking into shining yellow eyes. The creature bent its head down and pressed its nose into Bella's chest, causing her to fall forward. The second her face came into contact with its warm fur, she burrowed into the animal, pressing as much of her body against it as she could. As she thawed out she let the sound of the wolf purring lull her to sleep within a matter of seconds.

She slept through it all. Sam Uley emerged from the woods with the police chief's missing daughter curled up in his arms. Charlie took her into the house, where a doctor looked her over. Outside of her low temperature and a couple of scrapes and bruises, he couldn't find anything life-threatening. He gave Charlie instructions and told him to call as soon as she woke up so that he could check for a concussion. Her father brought her upstairs to her room. She slept through the rest of the next day, waking up at the end of the weekend. She spent the beginning of the week at home, eating soup and avoiding the rest of the town.

 **Hey readers!**

 **This is my first ever story on FF! I have been reading on here for years and thought I would take the time to upload one of the many story ideas that I thought of while reading all of the amazing stories on here. Let me know what you think, constructive criticism is welcome.**

 **Until next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

Six weeks later, Bella was back to normal. She acknowledged her schoolmates when they addressed her directly, but she didn't seek anyone out or start a conversation on her own. Her grades were steady, she was at home and in bed at a reasonable time every evening, and she always made dinner for her and her dad.

It was during one of those dinners that Charlie finally brought up the topic of conversation that he'd been avoiding.

"So, how are you?" He grumbled, mouth full of food.

"I'm good, dad." She practically whispered.

" How are you, really? I feel like you've been on autopilot since your birthday."

Bella squirmed under his scrutiny and wrapped her arms around her frame. Charlie watched her fall back into herself and pushed forward.

"You were happy that morning. You went to the party and came back all bandaged up, and then, I barely saw you. You were out of sync with me for a week before you left that stupid note about going into the woods, and then you never came back!"

"I didn't write a note."

Charlie let the room get quiet as he watched his daughters face for an answer.

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't write a note about the woods. I wasn't even planning on going into the woods when I went outside. I didn't leave a note, I never came back in." Bella's eyes had fallen back down to her now empty plate. She picked it up and began to start cleaning the table. Charlie got up and went after her, determined to get somewhere with this conversation.

"So, what, someone broke into the house and wrote a note about you going into the woods? Who would even do that? Why did you go into the woods at all? What happened? I haven't brought it up because I wanted to give you your space and time to heal, but I don't even know what you're healing from! Bella, I need answers, an explanation. Names, a face. Anything! I need to understand."

Bella stopped her machinations and turned to look at her father. She hasn't been thinking about him in all of this. Looking into his eyes and seeing the worry, stress, and fatigue. She realized that she was always going to leave him behind. Even when she was going with the Cullens, once she was turned, she never planned on seeing him again. For his own safety, but also because she wanted to shed her old life completely. She wasn't going to be a vampire now, she should really put some effort into her human relationships so that she doesn't fall off the face of the earth completely.

She couldn't imagine what her life for the past year looked like from the outside perspective. The accidents and injuries. How Edward was always bringing her back home with a new ailment. The way she shut out all of the people she was just getting to know. The fight she'd orchestrated to get James to follow her out of town and how she came back from that trip with bruises, a broken leg, and a human looking bite mark on her arm, just in time to go to prom with him.

She sighed loudly as she walked into her father's chest and wrapped her arms around him loosely. He was stunned at first, but he quickly reciprocated the hug, bending down to press his nose into the crown of her head. He was brought back to when he would rock her to sleep as an infant, promising her the world in soothing whispers. He squeezed her tighter as he realized he'd failed to protect her.

Bella knew she couldn't tell him everything, but she wanted to ease his mind with enough information to seemingly fill all of the gaps and hopefully love them both forward.

"Edward and I broke up. His dad got a better offer for a job in California and he didn't want to try at a long distance relationship. It wasn't anything devastating to hear, we parted on good terms. We were walking in the woods during our conversation, and when all was said and done, he walked away."

Charlie pulled back to look at her, his confused face poised to ask her some follow up questions.

"I think he was trying to help, by writing that note." Bella continued. "We'd gone on hikes and picnics in the forest before. We hadn't walked that far into the woods, we were pretty close to the house. I guess he thought I would be fine on my own, and he left a note for you because he didn't want you to worry if you came home before I got back."

Charlie shook his head at her. "How did it get to where we ended up finding you?"

Bella looked at her feet as she spun the story. It was very close to the truth, but she didn't remember much, so she didn't want to be seen thinking it up.

"I wasn't paying attention to the direction I was going. I was overthinking something he had said and I wasn't aware of my surroundings. I fell down an incline. I hit my head, I think. I just remember being somewhere completely foreign to me with a headache and no light to guide me back. I tried calling out, but my throat was sore and I was too cold to get far. I ended up sitting at the base of this tree to try and clear my head and get my bearings. I think I fell asleep a few times. Everything got blurry and more spotty the longer I was out there."

Charlie pulled her back into his chest, reminding himself that she was safe in his arms.

"Thank God, they found you."

"Who found me?" Bella asked, having been out of it for the majority of that weekend.

"I called everyone I knew to help me look when it passed midnight and you hadn't shown up yet. A lot of people came out to help set up a perimeter and go in looking for you. Billy even brought some boys in from the reservation to join the search party. They're the ones that found you and brought you out of the woods."

"I don't remember being found by anybody. I just remember the wolves."

"What wolves?" Charlie's grip tightened yet again.

"I don't know. Some forest creature. I could hear them breathing." Bella tried to soothe his fear with her tone.

"Well, Sam Uley's the one who carried you out of there. He and some of his friends decided to search the area past the perimeter we set up, said something about wasting time to make sure that we checked everywhere was worth it. He stayed the longest out of everybody when we'd finally got you back. Besides the blacks, he was the last to leave, wanted to make sure that you were ok."

Bella nodded at this information while the bright yellow eyes and the whine of the black wolf echoed in her head.

"I didn't even think about how I got back to you. I just remember waking up in bed, and you bringing me soup."

Charlie let out a chuckle as he ruffled her hair.

"The only thing that matters is that you came back to me."

He gave her a kiss on the forehead as he turned towards the living room. Bella finished up the dishes and wished him a good night as she called it a day. Lying in bed, she thought about that wolf an about this Sam Uley. She knew that she had to see him and hoped that he might help her figure everything out.


	3. Chapter 3

A little after noon on Sunday, Bella rode her truck down to the Black residence. She hopped out and was greeted by Billy, who'd made his way to the front porch once he heard the familiar rumble of the engine.

"Hey there, Bella. What brings you this way?"

"I wanted to thank you for helping my dad when I got lost in the woods. I don't remember much from that night, especially not the search party that was looking for me, but the way Charlie talked about it, it sounds like a lot of people were willing to help him out when he needed it the most. I'm glad that he has so much support in the community and I'm glad he has a friend like you."

Billy shifted his weight around, surprised by the earnest tone that the conversation had taken.

"It's nothing at all to help someone you care about. You talk like all those people where out there just to appease Charlie. They spent all that time, looking through the woods cuz they cared about you too, Bella."

She was shaking her head before he even finished his sentence.

"All of those people; paramedics, firefighters, officers, his fishing buddies, the reservation, they all came out to help him. They know him and the last thing they want is for him to suffer. If I had never shown up again - nobody wanted to put Charlie through that kind of pain. I'm sure they were all worried about me. You'd have to be heartless not care when someone goes missing like that, but they did what they did because it was Charlie. He's their friends, their leader, their family." Bella dropped off at the end of her speech, looking at her shoes, feeling bashful.

"You'll find one too," Billy offered, catching her attention. "friends like that. You'll find your place in the world, and you'll make your own community." He gave her an encouraging smile.

Bella smiled back and let out an awkward laugh to break up the tension.

"I was actually coming to see Sam Uley. Dad says him and some other boys where the ones who found me that night and I just wanted to say thank you."

Bill paused for a few seconds before nodding approvingly.

"That's really nice of you. Sam, Paul, and Jared. They do some construction work out of town, they help out on the res if anyone needs anything, they're good kids."

"I figured they had to be if they were the ones you called when Charlie asked for help." Bella nodded, laughing lightly. "They were the best choice too, seeing as they got the job done."

Billy got a twinkle in his eye as he leaned forward as if to tell a secret.

"What'd you whip up for them?"

Bella let out a hearty laugh at that. Cooking was her favorite pastime, it was her answer to any social interaction.

"Lasagna." She relented, catching Billy up in her laughter too.

"Good girl. They'll love it."

"I hope so. I got a little carried away. I wasn't sure what kind they'd like so I tried out a few variations on my recipe and I ended up with five pans!" Billy whistled impressively.

"I'm officially jealous, but that just might be enough to fill them up for the rest of the day. Those boys eat like it's going out of style."

"All I need now is a nod in the right direction. . ."

" Sam's house is three roads down, then turn right after that big tree you used to climb on when you were little. It's the second house down on the right, yellow, with green shutters."

Bella bowed slightly. " Thank you, very much." She quickly produced a bag of freshly baked almond cookies and tossed them in Billy's direction.

When he caught them and turned to her, she was on her way back to the truck.

"Love you, Billy! Your the best Chief around!" She called out as she stepped into the front seat.

"Don't let your father hear that! He might drop you!"

" You'll make room for me."

Billy laughed, biting into a cookie as she drove away.

 **Hey, there!**

 **I know you guys are excited for Bella to become a vampire in this story. Trust me I am too, but I've got to lay the groundwork to get there, hopefully, it will make it that much better when it does happen.**

 **Fortunately, the story's flowing pretty well for me right now. I'll try to avoid going off on tangents so that the story stays focused and engaging. Constructive criticism is welcome.**

 **Until next time!**


	4. Chapter 4

The boys were finishing up a pack meeting. They had ironed out the patrol schedule for the week and talked about who, in the tribe, they suspected would turn next. Each of them had their eye on a different boy. Jared was convinced it would be the youngest Quil Ateara. Paul was sure that Seth Clearwater, though still quite young, would be sprouting up any minute. Sam was looking out for Jacob Black. All three of them where the children or grandchildren of the tribe's elders and all direct descendants of the last Quileute pack, so the odds where that they'd all be joining eventually.

"Who knows, now that the leech family is gone, it may not happen to anyone else." Jared offered up. He wasn't sure if the gene had already been triggered in anyone else, and if there was no stopping it once it started.

"So what, it's just the three of us guarding this whole place for the rest of our lives? That's lame!" Paul was barely happy with the fact that, now that he was a protector of the tribe, he could never leave. He didn't wish it on anyone else, but he damn sure didn't want to be the only one suffering either.

Sam shook his head lightly. "I'm not sure how it all works, timeline wise. I could ask the elders, but unless someone wrote about a specific instance like that in the old journals and legends, we've no way to know for sure."

"Outside of traveling to the mountaintop with Old Quil and contacting the ancestors." Paul countered quickly.

"You actually think that would work?" Jared sat up, surprised that his best friend had offered that option up.

"Ha!" Paul threw his head back and scoffed at the thought. "Hell no! But I'd probably get to sample some of the good stuff." Jared shook his head disapprovingly at his best friend.

"Everyone should trip balls, at least once in their life." Paul continued, knowing he was getting on Jared's nerves.

Sam left them to their conversation as he caught up with his fiance Emily on her way out of the door. She was wearing a simple sundress and some sandals. She was the most beautiful thing that Sam had ever seen, and she got more beautiful every time he looked at her. He came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms.

"Hey," He mumbled into her hair. "Where are you off to?" Emily turned to face him in his arms. He took the moment to kiss every scar on her face as well as her forehead, nose, and finally lips.

"I'm headed to the store." She giggled. "You guys eat up everything in the house in record time. If the elders didn't give us that extra money, you might be hunting rabbits in your wolf form for sustenance." She teased him, rubbing their noses together.

Paul, catching the end of their conversation, was about to call out a crude joke, when the sound of an old truck turning toward the house caught his attention. He walked to the window and peeked out at the red pickup pulling into Sam and Emily's driveway.

"What the fuck does she want?" Paul shouted, getting the attention or the others in the house. Emily looked through the curtain on the front door, Sam joined her as Jared stood next to Paul in the kitchen. The four of them watched as Bella Swan got out of the pickup and walked to the front door, pulling at her clothes, nervously.

"We're about to find out." Jared mumbled.

Bella took a moment, once she reached the front door, to catch her breath and go over what she was going to say one last time. She lifted her hand to ring the doorbell when the locks started turning and the door opened just wide enough to allow a face through. The face was a beautiful young woman. She was smiling pleasantly at Bella, the long jagged scars that ran down the right side of her face, not letting that side of her mouth go up as much as the other.

"Hello. Can I help you?" Her voice was warm and welcoming. Bella looked into her eyes and smiled back.

"Hi. I'm looking for Sam Uley." Bella spoke slowly, to keep her voice from wavering. Emily stood looking at her for a few more seconds before a hand came around and opened the door further, revealing a tall and broad shirtless man with a stoic face. Bella looked up at him. She had never seen this man before in her life. Though when she looked into his patient eyes, the memory of the wolfs yellow tinted irises shot to the forefront of her mind.

"Sam." She sighed his name with a mixture of relief and apprehension.

"Hello, Bella. How are you?" His voice was deep and sturdy. She could feel the tension leaving her shoulders as she began to feel safe in his presence.

"Good. . . Great actually. I'm alive!" They both let out a soft chuckle. Emilly bit down on the smile that was threatening to take over her face.

"What brings you by?" Sam asked repositioning himself to take up more of the door frame as he pulled Emily into his side.

"I wanted to say thank you, for saving my life." Sam went to object, but Bella wasn't having it.

"I don't why you and your friends decided to go out to Forks in the middle of the night, to help look for some pale face you'd never met before. I don't know what made you want to look for me outside of the search perimeter set up by the officials. But, whatever they are, they're the reason I'm alive. You're the reason I'm alive, and I need you to know how insanely grateful I am to you."

Sam was taken aback by the earnestness in her voice. The raw emotion in her eyes had him locked in his position and rendered speechless. Emily was holding back tears of pride for the man that she loves. Bella shifted her weight, not knowing how to transition from that.

"There is no way that I could ever truly repay you for what you did. I hope that I never have to, I would never wish what I went through on anyone." Bella ran her hand through her hair, deciding to just come out with it.

"There's really only one way that I know how to cope with my emotions. . . Do you like lasagna?" Emily let out a surprised laugh as Sam slowly found his voice again.

"Um, yeah." Sam finally answered. Bella's smile widened as she bounced with excitement.

"Good! That's good because I made-" Emilly let out a surprised yelp as she was moved to the side to make way for the two men that came barreling out of the front door. Both boys went straight to the truck, yanking open the door to reveal the stack of pans that were emitting and orgasmic scent if their moans were anything to go off of.

"FUCK!" Paul shouted, as him and Jared toted the lasagnas back into the house in one trip, already drooling onto the covering. "Thanks, pale face!" Paul shouted as he passed her on his way to the kitchen. Bella laughed good-naturedly at their antics. "No problem." she called back.

"I'll make sure to clean them and drop them off at Billy's place when they finish them." Emily offered, resting a hand on Bella's arm.

"You might not need to, by the sounds of it, they'll have licked them clean before she reaches her car." Sam laughed, looking back at the boys.

"Well then, you should go, before they eat it all without you." Bella and Emily watched him sprint to fight them off, sharing a look of amusement.

"Do you want to come in?" Emily moved her hand to the back of Bella, as she guided her into their home. Bella looked around at the lovely decor, complimenting her on it, as they made their way towards the kitchen. Jared had taken out a plate and placed big slices of each lasagna on it. Paul was using his fork to eat out of the pans. Sam had taken an entire pan for himself and was sat a little away from the others, at the kitchen island. Bella and Emily moved to sit at the table while their chat came to an end.

"Thanks for this, Bella." Jared mumbled in between bites.

"It's no problem at all. . ." "Jared." "Jared! I do this almost every day, why not share." Bella chuckled awkwardly as they fell into silence. Bella tried to remember anything about them from that night, but nothing past the wolves and before her bedroom, days later, resurfaced.

"Why were you out there, to begin with?" The question to break the silence came from Paul, who'd been watching her curiously since she sat down. "Paul!" Sam went to reprimand him before he was cut off by Bella.

"My ex-boyfriend thought that it would be best to walk around while we broke up. After he left, I kept walking, too into my head to watch where I was going. I fell down and hit my head. By the time I had woken up, it was dark outside. I was cold, wet, discombobulated, and completely turned around. I figured the safest bet was to stay put and not get even more lost, so I sat down by a tree and shivered."

Bell had trained her eyes on the napkin she was fiddling with in her hand. She didn't exactly get flashbacks to what had happened, but an unsettling energy washed over her when she thought about it for too long.

"That sounds terrifying!" Emily placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Thank God for us, am I right?" Paul chuckled in between bites.

His three friends gave him disapproving glares.

"Stop it." Jared gritted his teeth.

"What? I'm not saying anything that isn't true. She would have died without us, that's why we're eating lasagna right now!" Paul defended himself, take ing bites as he went.

"Technically, it was the wolves. . ." Bella's spaced out clarification brought the room to dead silence, as everyone shared looks of fear and silently agreed to proceed with caution.

"What was that?" Emily asked.

Bella shook her head focus and offered a better explanation. "There were wolves that found me before you did. They huddled around me to keep me warm. I probably would have been dead, or at least a lot worse off when you guys found me if the wolves hadn't been there."

"Wolves kept you warm?" Sam asked. He wanted to clarify that that was all she remembered and hopefully nudge her in the direction of disbelief.

Bella nodded slowly. "I'm guessing they were gone by the time you showed up, judging by how surprised you sound. Maybe they heard you coming and were afraid of being outnumbered. Or maybe they left before then. I don't remember anything after that. I fell asleep."

Bella picked up a stray fork and picked up a bite from the closest pan. She chewed methodically while the rest had a silent conversation about what to do next.

Bella noticed the tension in the room and mistook it for something else. "I'm sorry for talking your ear off. I just wanted to say thank you, really. I'm glad, you like the lasagna. I can pick the pans up from Billy, whenever you're done." Bella had gathered herself and made it to the front of the room. She turned and offered a quick wave on her way out the door. "It was really nice to meet you all. Have a lovely rest of your day.

They watched as she practically ran from the house and listened to her get into her car and drive off, reprimanding herself for being so awkward around them. The room was silent way past when her truck went out of hearing range.

" Is that something we should be worried about?" Jared asked, afraid of what would happen if their most important rule of secrecy had been broken.

"Nah!" Paul called out with food in his mouth, his pace never faltering since he started eating.


	5. Chapter 5

Winter break had come and gone, and Bella was closing out her senior year with a 4.50 GPA. She had warmed up to her fellow classmates but hadn't hung out with anyone outside of school. Charlie had expressed his concerns about her social life but didn't press too hard, since her grades were great and she'd gotten accepted into three schools. He was hoping she'd get a fresh start in college.

Bella had been to La Push since she dropped off the lasagna. She'd mainly tagged along with Charlie when he went to the Black's house for sports and fishing. She'd spent time with Jacob as he worked on his car and some bikes that he'd found on the side of the road just outside of town. They'd become good friends, though he knew nothing of her life with the Cullens and she knew nothing of his growing concern for the unwanted attention he'd been getting from Sam and his gang.

Bella had made the most of her alone time by taking up hiking. She got everything she'd need from the Newton's Sporting Goods store and made a trail for herself along the path, she believed led to the meadow. She wasn't missing Edward or looking for closure. She just wanted to see it one last time. To sit amongst the beautiful scenery and bask in the sunlight and silence.

She'd finally found it. A week after her falling out with Jacob, where he avoided her for a month and then yelled at her for the Cullens being the reason he never wanted to see her again. It made her feel better about never coming back, once she graduated. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, exactly, but she figured it'd be best to start over.

Breaking through the trees, Bella found herself at the edge of a dead field. All of the life and beauty of the meadow had been snuffed out. The ground was a crunchy and ugly orangey-brown color. There was no noise, outside of her own breathing and rustling. It felt like a graveyard. She wondered if this was the final sign that that part of her life was over. She didn't know if it meant that she was done with vampires and should try to live a normal life, or if she was just done with the Cullens and her life in Forks and she should make her own path.

She sat down in the middle of the dead grass and closed her eyes. She let the silence wrap around her and she waited for something to emerge behind her eyelids, for the impromptu meditation to give her the answers. It felt silly and she didn't think it would work, but she just couldn't give up. Not yet. She sat for at least an hour, going back and forth in her head.

As soon as she'd made the decision, the sound of someone, or something, coming through the trees caught her attention.

 **Hey there!**

 **Just a heads up, this story is AU and I'm not really sticking to any set timeline from the books or movies. It's my own thing, and unless my memory is better than I think it is, I won't be doing any lines from the book or movie. Just thought I'd let you know before we kick off.**

 **I hope you guys are enjoying it so far.**

 **Until next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

Victoria knew what she was going to do the second she walked away from the obnoxiously cute couple at their stupid high school dance. Bella and Edward were the reason her mate had died, which meant they had to die too. It took one look at their private moment in the gazebo and overhearing their conversation to know that the best revenge would be. To kill Edwards precious mate in front of him and leave him to the same fate of an eternity alone, just like her.

She knew that it would be hard, getting to the girl quick enough to end her, while still having the time to make it hurt for the both of them. Their coven was huge and full of formidable fighters, so she had to strategize. Luckily, that was what she was good at. James enjoyed the chase and the fight of his victims while she quite like waiting for them to reach the perfect position for her to pounce and end them without a second or drop of blood spared.

The first order of business was taking her vengeful army of one from pathetic to daunting. She remembered the stories that James and Laurent would tell her during her first few years of vampirism, of how the south was home to giant newborn armies that had been fighting monumental battles for centuries with their activities and the body count going unnoticed by the humans. It was a legend, but quite the template to borrow from as well. She needed an army of her own to snuff out the most skilfull of the coven, leaving her to put on a show for the redhead.

She picked the biggest hunting ground in proximity to the tiny town and quickly realized how easy it would be to build her numbers with the discarded and forgotten of the city. She looked first for a second in command. There was no way that she was going to do all the work of turning and training all of those vampires. She was barely able to tolerate herself as a newborn, she'd kill them all in a day if she had to deal with them. Plus, they had a future seer and a mind reader on their side. Her self-preservation instincts told her that she needed to be far from the operation in order to get this done undetected.

She spent a month picking the right one. She knew it would be easiest to control a young man, convince him that she turned him for love and let their devotion and dedication stem from her being their only guide into their new world. She'd follow someone and then drop them once they displayed a characteristic that she wasn't fond of, or proved to be too socially ingrained and obligated, that their disappearance would not go unnoticed.

She finally found him, a quietly charming boy who paid a lot of attention to his surroundings and proved to be pretty adept at battle strategy and warfare, at least in video games. It wouldn't be too hard to transfer those skills to a real-world application. She waited until he was alone, leaving his last social obligation for three days, having plans to spend a long weekend at home on something or another. It would be awhile before his absence was noticed, and by that time she would be on her way to getting everything she wanted off and running.

Riley was a peach, really just the sweetest and most eager to please. He was vicious too, like all newborns, but he had a fascinating capability to switch from obedient puppy to rabid animal at a speed that made even Victoria dizzy. They built their ranks quickly, killing the ones who lost their usefulness and constantly moving around to keep off of any radars. Riley was a natural leader and she barely spent any time with the lot of them, which was safest for her. She had Riley send out scouts to get a lay of the land and pick up any habits or openings in the Cullens and their mundane routine.

Laurent, who had come back to her after a failed attempt at their vegetarian way of living offered to go in as a wolf in sheep's clothing. He would claim that he'd slipped up on his diet and felt too ashamed to get back on the diet in the presence of the family he let down. He might even be able to get close enough to take Bella, sending the Cullens right into their waiting trap in Seattle. She was waiting eagerly for him to return with news as she relaxed in her tiny cabin. Riley would stop by every other night for some encouragement and direction, but other than that she spent her days with her eyes closed, holding onto the centuries of beautiful memories she could revisit of every moment ever spent with her mate.


	7. Chapter 7

Laurent was just outside of the Forks limits as he gave some last minute instructions to the newborn he had brought with him on his reconnaissance mission. He'd taken to picking the ones out of the group that he found promising in one way or another and giving them privy information. He wished for them to stay well out of range form the Cullens. He'd return with information periodically as he got into their good graces. It was an easier way to communicate with Victoria that risk the mind reader or future seer catching glimpses of him with Victoria.

He approached the Cullen household, clothes ragged and torn with a distraught and frantic look on his face, ready to fall at their front steps and declare himself unworthy. He stopped short a few meters away, as not only did he not sense any one's presence, he could also barely smell their faded scents. He to a slower approach to their home, taking note of the overgrown lawn and lack of vehicles or lights on in the house. He made it their front porch, looking in to see their house empty, save for accumulated dust and some sheet-covered furniture. He was a millisecond away from exclaiming in defeat and running back to tell Victoria of the news when he caught a fresher scent concentrated at the door of the home.

He stepped closer to the glass a wide and terrifying grin spreading across his face as he came to the realization that the vampires had indeed abandoned their stead, but they had left the human behind. Unprotected and as delectable as ever. He began to vibrate with excitement at the way things had turned out for them. The army was no longer needed, he could pick the girl up and drop her at Victoria's feet by midday. He set off into the woods, looking for any traces of her scent as he fought with a newly formed idea of simply ending the girl right where he found her. Claiming her blood for himself became even more appealing as he caught her scent in the shifting wind and sped to her location.

He stood watching as she cleared the trees and walked to the middle of a dried up meadow. She was dressed for the forest excursion and seemed calm and a little disheartened. She fell to her knees in the center of the open space, closing her eyes and breathing calmly for quite some time. Laurent let her go undisturbed, fascinated by the simplicity of it all. She was seconds away from death, heart steady, in the middle of nowhere, with not a protector in the entire town. He decided that it was all a sign from destiny. He was saving her from quite the horrible ordeal that ending up with Victoria would have been, he planned to tell her such before he fed. He made a move forward, breaking a branch to catch her attention, as he walked predatorily into the light.


	8. Chapter 8

"Laurent." Bella couldn't tell if relief, surprise or trepidation was what she was filling as she watched a disheveled, red-eyed smiling vampire walking unabashedly into the sunlight. This was it, she thought, the sign from destiny. She rose carefully from he place on the ground, taking a few step towards her new salvation. "What are you doing here? I thought you were with the Denali's adopting their lifestyle."

Laurent came to a stop just out of arm's reach of her. He looked her over, noticing the healthy flush to her cheeks. "Bella, you look radiant! I'm a little surprised, though. I stopped by the Cullens and they seemed to have moved on. I was sure they would take you with them, seeing as how protective they were of you the last time I was here." Laurent was surveying every inch of her body, what he could see through her warm layers.

Bella could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't care. The only thing that mattered was that he was here, and willing to have a conversation. She felt so close to having the life she almost gave up hope on. It was practically suffocating her self-preservation instincts. "They got bored of playing the human. Edward didn't want me to become a vampire, so he made up some excuse and dumped me after they'd all left town." Bella tried to adopt a casual tone, but her nerves and excitement were making her voice shake. Judging by the way his pupils grew darker, she could tell that he'd mistaken it for fear.

"That's a shame. Victoria will be sad to hear that. She was hoping to kill you as an act of revenge against the Cullens, to tear out Edwards heart with your lifeless body as they did to her with James' ashes." Bella shifted her weight before closing the distance between them. This surprised Laurent, as the look in her eyes was hope and determination instead of fear and devastation. She reached out to take his hand and he barely held back his flinch.

"But he doesn't care. My death won't affect him at all, he left me to die. It would be a bigger deal to turn me, as that was the last thing he wanted. Think about it. I could come with you guys and you could teach me how to be real vampires, not the vegetarian kind. It would most definitely wound his ego to see that I'd managed to make friends with the vampires he deemed the worst of his kind. That I was more like them." Bella was rambling and stumbling over her words. She knew that she was possibly pushing him away, but she couldn't stop herself.

He was right in front of her. His cold, lifeless hand was in hers and it felt like she was holding onto the marble hand of a statue. She thought she'd never feel skin like that again. She couldn't even muster some hesitation for never seeing Charlie again.

Laurant looked into her eyes, the space between them shrinking and gaining tension. He placed the hand she wasn't gripping onto the base of her neck, at her pulse point. "This is not what I expected, coming back to this small town. I'm quite intrigued by your offer, I must admit. I think It would be best to let Victoria hear your pleas for salvation at her side. They would make her day." Laurent was almost laughing and the ease and absurdity of the situation. Bella's smile grew twice as wide. Laurent moved to pick her up, before a horrid scent and unsettling sounds froze him in place. "No."

Bella grew worried by his change in demeanor. He moved away from her, his frantic eyes searching the depths of their surrounding woods. "What's wrong?" Bella's voice shook with fear as she tried to go to him. He shook his head admittedly as he stole away into the shade of the trees. She didn't even try to call out, knowing he was far out of hearing range by now. Tears threatened to spill over her eyes as the past few minutes finally caught up with her. The sound of a small stampede headed straight for her barely registered, until the sound of the trees closest to her snapping and falling to the ground to give way to giant masses of fur speeding by her.

The scream of surprise got swallowed by the sound of the animals sprinting through the meadow all around her. Bella fell to the ground in a ball, her mind barely registering the events as her body went into shock. The ground shaking presence and the deafening sound of the animals died down as they ran further away. Bella lifted her head to assess her surroundings. The edges of the meadow had been obliterated. She made a move to grab her bag before she registered the giant brown wolf in her peripheral vision.

Bella turned slowly, assessing seven-foot wolf sat calmly just a few feet away. His head was turned down as he whined, bringing back the hazy image of her night in the woods. The glint of its bright yellow eyes knocked her out of her stupor enough for her to pull herself off the ground. She stood shaking as she caught her breath and watched the wolf watch her. Tears where freely rolling down her dirt covered cheeks, she couldn't tell what they were for, most likely all of it.

The wolf leaned it's head, pawing at the ground and whining again. She tried to care enough to decipher his behavior, but she was running on fumes. "I'm sorry. I can't. I can hardly comprehend whatever the hell just happened. I'm not going to even try to understand you-" The wolf's head snapped in the direction his pack had gone. He looked off in that direction before whining and turning back to her. He moved the stand on all four legs, barking quickly at Bella before he turned to follow the trail.

Bella brows furrowed as the wolf reluctantly trotted off. She was alone again. She took one deep ten-second long breath before her legs gave out. Her vision faded to black before she hit the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

Bella came to on the Black's couch. Jacob was in the armchair across from her with his head in his hands. She could hear Charlie and Billy talking in the kitchen. She made a move to sit up, which got Jacob's attention. " Take it easy, you could still be a little light headed. We don't want you passing out again." He handed her a bottle of water as he settled in next to her on the couch.

He was a lot warmer than she remembered. He had gained a lot of muscle and wasn't wearing a shirt, putting his new tattoo on display. All of the pieces fit together in her mind, as she finished the drink he'd given her, just in time to be handed another one by her father as he came in the room. "Glad you're awake, sweetheart. Now, what the hell were you thinking, going back out there!" He managed to keep his anger under control because she was okay, but he felt like he was having the worst deja vu ever.

"I'm sorry, dad. I've been doing really well, I haven't gotten lost or injured. I think I was just dehydrated. I didn't bring enough water and bars for that long of a journey." She kept her eyes down, hoping to look remorseful.

"From now on, you can't go out there alone. Take a friend with you, or wait until the weekend and we can do it together." Bella was sure she wouldn't be hiking again. "Sure dad, that sounds like fun."

Bella looked at Billy, who was watching her with trepidation. "So, how did I get out of the woods this time?" Billy schooled his face, catching on to the fact that she was letting him pick the narrative. "This time you'll be bringing that lasagna straight here." He joked lightly as he gestured to Jacob, who shook his head. "Me and some friends where out there, when we noticed someone laying down. I didn't know it was you until we reached you. You weren't responding, so we checked for broken bones before bringing you back here." Bella nodded softly.

The Swans stayed for an hour before heading home. Bella let Charlie order take out so she could rest.

Jacob called her the next day. He invited her to come over and hang out at the beach. She dressed warm and met him an hour later. They walked in silence for a long stretch of the shore. When they reached the place they had stopped at the last time they were here, they sat down again. Bella watched the water and waited for Jacob to breach the subject. Five minutes later, he did.

"The last time that we were here, you asked about the Cullens and I told you about our legends." Jacob kept his eyes on the water too. Bella nodded softly, letting him know that he could continue. " You had just met the Cullens, but since then, you've gotten to know them pretty well. Do the stories I told you still sound as ridiculous as they did back then?"

Neither one had actually said anything yet. Most likely because they couldn't. Bella didn't want to tell the Cullen's secret, nor did she want to accuse the Quileute boys of what she'd figured out. Odds are, Jacob wasn't allowed to tell those secrets either. He did when he was unaware of their truth, back when they were both unaware. Now, not only did they both know a lot more, but they were seemingly on opposing sides.

Bella turned to him, his face was etched with worry, though the excitement was seeping through his eyes. He still looked so young in the face, even though he'd lost all of the baby weight and his body had developed almost overnight. She could tell that he wanted her to be in his life, and she knew she'd have to be the one to cross the line. After all, she was the only one on her side.

"They never sounded ridiculous to me." Jacob turned to her. They locked eyes and they knew that they were on the same page. "I had all of the puzzle pieces, you just gave me the picture that they made, which helped me put it all together." Jacob looked lost in thought before disgust ran across his face. "You dated one of them." Bella snickered at what he was implying. "'Courting' is probably a more appropriate term. He was really old-fashioned about the whole thing." Jacob shook his head "He's old-fashioned because he's old. That's really weird." Bella was cackling at this point. "Says the guy with a tail." "Hey now!" Jacob tried to look stern but ended up laughing along with her. "What the hell are our lives?" They laughed themselves to tears and talked till sunset.


	10. Chapter 10

**We've hit double digits. Yaay!**

Victoria was furious. That stupid newborn had come back without Laurent because apparently he got eaten by giant wolves. She had heard the stories of the children of the moon, how Caius Volturi drove them to extinction. These animals were much larger than the stories of the children of the moon described them. That and the fact that Laurent was killed in the middle of the day led Victoria to believe that they were dealing with something else.

Regardless of what they were, they were obviously protecting the stupid girl, which meant that she needed more vampires for her army. She let Riley think that he was comforting her before she cried about her fears of their army not being strong enough. He gathered a small group and set out to feed and collect more members.

Victoria stared into her fireplace as she said her goodbyes to Laurent. She'd somehow outlived the oldest vampires she knew. The two that brought her into this world, her family. They had both been killed by the people protecting Bella. She wanted to kill that cheeseburger now, more than she ever had before. A small voice in the recesses of her mind told her that it might be the end of her too. "I promise you, James, I will kill Bella Swan, even if it's the last thing I do."

* * *

Riley stood on the upper level of an abandoned warehouse. He looked down to see eighteen bodies piled on top of each other in the center of the room. Him and the three newborns he brought with him fed on some people and dropped them off at the warehouse while they went to pick up others from off the street. Everyone was bitten and now, they were all in transition. They writhed around, some screaming at different times.

Two of the newborns he brought with him had run off, he could hear them a few yards away, using their strength to destroy some abandoned cars. The other newborn was right beside him. Diego was almost as old as him. He'd become somewhat of a right-hand man, so Victoria let him stay. The world was so different to him now, but if Riley were to use a phrase from his past, Diego was the closest thing to a best friend.

"It's like something out of a sci-fi movie." Diego's comment pulled Riley out of his thoughts. "What is?" He turned to see him watching the soon-to-be newborns. They stayed connected in a ball, all of their individual movements making them more intertwined. The screams varied in volume and pitch. Sometimes the right combination would occur, and the screaming voices would harmonize.

"It's the thing at the bottom of the hole. The mother alien that shits out all the smaller ones you've been shooting at. You've got to get to the pit after everyone's gotten off the ship and you sacrifice yourself by throwing the bomb at it and blowing the whole base up."

"That's so stupid. Why would you kill yourself?"

"Well, you don't want to do it, but somebody's gotta kill the mother alien."

"Not if you're all on another ship. Just fly away and let the aliens have the ship. They'll starve to death if there are no humans to eat, and the ship is in the middle of space. It'll run out of fuel and with no one navigating, it'll just float off and become another rock in the aether."

Diego gave him a half-hearted punch in the arm, it sounded like two rocks colliding. "Come on, man. That's nowhere near as fun as blowing a bunch of aliens to shit."

"You can still do that, just don't die. Drop the bomb in the hole and run onto the other ship before it goes off." Diego shook his head at this. "How the hell are you gonna drop the bomb and get on the getaway ship?" Riley turned to his friend, a sarcastic smirk appearing on his face. He placed both hands on his friend's broad shoulders and shook him lightly.

"We're vampires, Diego. We can drop that bomb in the pit and make it to the getaway ship before it even reaches the bottom." Diego swatted his hands away. "If we were vampires, we wouldn't be the heroes. Vampires are the monsters."

"Yeah, the chalky, old, and slow ones who are allergic to garlic and wood. We're Op, my friend."

"True." They turned to a window, where they could see one of the vampires throwing a truck off of a building. He and the other vampire cheered as it landed on the car they'd placed below it.

"What are you gonna do, after this?" Riley turned to see the playfulness had left his friends features. "After what?"

"After we fight that other vampire group, the coven. Is Victoria gonna keep making more, are we gonna go around fighting other vampire groups forever. Is she gonna set us free, or kill us all, what's the plan?" Diego's tone was calm, though you could tell which option he preferred.

Riley let out a sigh as he looked back onto the transitioning group, even they had gotten quiet as the tone of the conversation changed. "I don't know, man. She doesn't really tell me much."

"But, aren't you two like. . ." He let the sentence fall off and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Riley threw his hand up to block Diego's face from his vision. "STOP!" They chuckled lightly, glad they could break the tension.

"Kind of. I mean, we fuck, but we're not close or anything. I don't really know anything about her." He could tell that Diego was starting to feel sorry for him.

"What would you do?" He watched as Diego's attention was successfully redirected. His eyes glazed over and a specific smile spread across his face. "I would go somewhere with Bree. We'd go everywhere. She talks about running, sometimes. Just taking off in a random direction and not stopping till we hit the water. Seeing if we're fast enough to run across the ocean."

Riley sighed. The way he talked about her. The look on his face, how his eyes went hazy. He and Victoria didn't have that. She's damn sure never looked at him like that before. She didn't even mention afterward. It was just about getting the army to kill the coven and saving a redhead and a human for last. Nothing else. In fact, he was pretty sure that the person who did make her eyes go hazy was the reason they were doing this in the first place.

She would talk about the coven being three times as big as her coven had been when they met them. How it was just her, Laurent and some guy, and they killed the guy, just because they could. She never gave him a name, and would just skip past any part of any story she was telling if it had him in it. He had never loved someone before, but he imagined that if he did, he would raise an army of the dead to avenge them.

"You could come too." Diego offer, gaining his attention, yet again.

"And what, be the third wheel, the whole time?" He was only half joking.

"Others might come too. We could make our own coven. . ."

"If we survive, and she lets us live after the battle."

"Or before that," Diego said it so softly, that only the vampire standing next to him could have heard it, and he almost missed it over the screaming. They both turned away from each other, and back to watching the transitioning newborns. Riley kept the comment tucked away in his pocket.

He didn't want to abandon or betray Victoria, but he knew for a fact that he couldn't say for sure if she felt the same, and that meant that he needed to consider every outcome of the situation and develop plans accordingly. He trusted Diego, he was the dreamer to his realism. He had no doubt that they could make it on their own. He hadn't spent much time with Bree, but she had to be at least tolerable if Diego was so whipped already.

They spent the next few days in the warehouse waiting for the new lot to come too. Riley asserted his dominance and filled them in on their new lives, abilities, and the agenda. He'd gotten the welcoming song and dance down to a science. He was pretty good at it, by this point. Running back to the base, he couldn't help but think about the offer again.

Being the leader of his own coven, it wasn't the worst idea.

* * *

Victoria went to Forks. It was a stupid idea that Laurent and James would have talked her out of doing, but they were gone, and she had to get a little desperate to know how the other side would respond.

She circled the woods of the town three times before she ran into that horrid smell and picked up on the sound of feet coming after her. She took to the trees and turned back to see the giant wolves right on her tail, pun intended.

She giggled at them as she stayed just out of reach. They chased her to the edge of a river. She jumped to the other side and was surprised to see that they did not follow. She took in the sent of the forest around her, no wet dog smell, only the faintest trace of other vampires.

"A town divided by species, how convenient." She waved goodbye and took off, following the general direction of the scents. She came upon a house and stopped, inches from the front door. Laurent's scent was here, and so was the girls, but the rest of the coven was long gone. The house abandoned and dusty.

Victoria watched as her reflection grew a grin that almost sent shivers down her own spine. The sound of pounding feet came back into range, and Victoria ran back to the water. She jumped in and proceeded to swim along the very bottom, all the way back to her cabin.

The coven had left her behind. Unprotected, save for a few guard dogs. Now she knew what the chess board looked like. She would bring her army soon. They'd kill the mutts and She'd torture and mutilate the ever protected Bella Swan. She'd scatter the town with pieces of their bodies. She'd set her army on the dismal population. Then, she'd wait, while word reached them.

They'd come running back to see their safe haven destroyed. Maybe she'd fashion jewelry out of Bella's bones. Shed cover herself in the girl dried up organs and matted hair to drive them into an uncoordinated frenzy. As her army defeated the rest of them, she'd take Edward and tear him into pieces. She'd let his severed head watch as they burned the whole place to the ground. Then she'd travel the world, burying parts of him all over, saving his head and some other parts to play with as she pleased. Finally, she would lock his head in a safe and toss it into the ocean. He'd never get the satisfaction of dying to be reunited with her again. He'd live and suffer until the sun swallowed the planet whole. Victoria cackled hysterically as she walked into her cabin.

The plan was perfect, and she had everything she needed to make sure she didn't fail. Nothing could stop her.

 **Hey there!**

 **Thanks for sticking with me so far. We're closing in on the meeting and getting into the main story.**

 **That cheeseburger line was a very deep cut if anyone noticed.**

 **Stephanie Meyer, in defense of the nomads, compared the whole ordeal to someone you just met killing your boyfriend over a cheeseburger. It always stuck with me as the perfect way to describe vampires so I had to put it in here, somewhere.**

 **Until next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

The pack called an emergency meeting that night. They invited Bella since she knew the most about the vampires in the area. After hearing their description of the vampire, she was pretty sure she knew what was going on.

"There were three of them, initially. Their coven was passing through when they ran into the Cullens. Their leader, James. . . the Cullens killed him in Arizona. Laurent left before then, claiming that he wanted nothing to do with the situation. Victoria, we never saw her again. James and Victoria were mates. With James dead, Victoria's got nothing else to live for. Vengeance is the only thing on her mind. And since Edward killed James-"

"She's trying to kill you." Sam finished for her.

"But, you and Edward aren't mates! The Cullens aren't even here. Shouldn't she be headed for them?" Jacob asked.

"James is still dead. And it's still my fault technically. Not to mention she has much better odds going after a week defenseless human than seven vampires."

"But, you're not defenseless, she was just chased out of town by a pack of ten horse-sized wolves. She's massively outnumbered on both fronts." Jared countered.

"It is a possibility, but we shouldn't count on her not returning. It's better to be prepared for a fight that never comes than to get caught off guard." Sam spoke in his alpha voice.

"Yeah, It'd be ridiculous for her to come back alone, especially now that she knows what she's up against," Paul commented. "Which probably means that she's out there finding people to back her up."

"Finding, or making. All it takes is a bite and three days of excruciating pain, and she's got her own army to fight back with." Bella had sunk down into the couch. Her head was spinning. With Laurent there as a buffer, she had a chance of coming to some sort of mutual agreement with Victoria. Now that he was dead, and she'd been chased through Forks by the wolves, there was no way she wasn't going straight for the kill the second she got close enough.

The meeting went on for another hour as they developed fighting strategies and Sam set a schedule for patrol that included Bella's house and the Cullen's side of the treaty line.

Bella trudged into her house. It was after midnight. Charlie had been called to help out with a case a few towns over that morning. The place was pitch black and dead silent. Bella didn't even bother turning any lights on as she made her way to her room. She dropped her bag and kicked off her shoes as she moved toward her bed.

In an instant, her whole body went rigid. The sight of a male silhouette occupying her rocking chair wasn't new. Edward would wind up there most nights, but he was gone. The lamp turned on, illuminating the face of a stranger. His pale skin and red eyes told her all that she needed to know.

"Hello." His voice was smooth and enticing, like all vampires. Bella mustered a shaky breath in response. He tilted his head at an odd angle as he took her in. She was trembling in his presence, though she managed to stay on her feet. The tears in her eyes were threatening to spill over any second now, but she kept her eyes locked on him. He lifted the t-shirt he'd taken from her laundry basket to his nose and took a deep breath.

"I must say, out of all the humans I've smelled since I was turned, you do smell especially delicious." he dropped the garment to the ground revealing his devilish smirk.

Bella took a few steps forward. She'd been dead on her feet when she came home, and she would be damned if she let her legs give out in front of the arrogant vampire. She plopped down onto the corner of her bed and took a moment to catch her breath.

His intimidating demeanor gave way to an amused and intrigued expression as he stood up to sit beside her on the bed. His movement was fluid and almost instantaneous, as only a vampire could be. Bella raised her head to meet his eyes. She could see the curiosity seeping through his blood red irises.

"Victoria," She breathed her name and watched him intently for a reaction. His furrowed his eyebrows, his pupils dilated, and the edges of his smile fell slightly. "She sent you." Bella concluded quietly.

"The name's Riley." He offered his hand to her. She slipped hers into his, expecting a handshake, but was not that surprised when he brushed his lips against her knuckles.

"How many vampires does she have?" Bella took her hand back. He was here and he was talking, she was going to get as much out of this as she could.

"The number is always changing. Newborns have a habit of killing each other when they're cooped up." Riley shrugged it off with a laugh.

"She sent you here to talk to me?" Bella was a little confused, this seemed out of character after she'd just been here.

"No. I'm here to get things with your scent on them so that the newborns know who they're looking for." Riley spoke casually.

This wasn't making any sense. Riley had already confirmed her suspicion that Victoria was creating an army to come and fight the wolves. She guessed that her appearance earlier was her scouting out the area, she sent someone to collect her scent, so that her army had a target. Why then, was he sitting on her bed, having a talk with her. This wasn't under Victoria's orders. Something else was going on.

"What is this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, she sent you here to get my scent. She has an army ready to attack. She did not tell you to talk to me. She has no idea that you are. So, what is this for, what do you want?"

Riley was silent as he appraised her. There was nothing in this town or about this girl that was fitting into anything he thought he knew. The clouds parted, allowing the moonlight to filter into the bedroom and illuminate his face. His pale skin was almost glowing. "I want answers."

She could see it in his eyes then, the fear. He looked to be in his early twenties. Judging by the way he spoke about it earlier, he was fairly new to his life as a vampire. He had to be, James died less than a year ago. He was in the same position she had been in, but instead of being introduced to the world through friendship and romance, he had been turned against his will and forced to fight in a battle he knew nothing about.

Bella felt the tension leave her body. "Ok. What are your questions?"


	12. Chapter 12

As the sun rose on a new day, streams of light penetrated the gaps in the boarded-up windows of an abandoned factory. The patches of light caught the attention of some newborns, who took turns holding their hands and arms under it to watch their skin react in an explosion of refracted light. Those who weren't marveling at the sun were in another part of the dilapidated building making thunderous amounts of noise and reducing the old structures and machines that were left behind, into dust as they fought each other for entertainment. A level above, in a room with a wall of windows that overlooked the main floor, sat a quiet newborn who was always by himself.

Freaky Fred was what the rest of the newborns called him, that is when they remembered he was even there to begin with. He had a unique ability to repel and disgust those in close proximity to him, to the point where they actively removed his existence from their thoughts to keep themselves from becoming physically nauseous under his influence. This rendered him practically invisible. Which was exactly how he liked it.

Most of his memories form humanity where fuzzy and incoherent. He knew that his name was Fred and that his intelligence and overall disdain for social situations was something carried over. He was a calm individual, observant, and a logical thinker. He had no faith or tolerance in his current situation ending well for him. He knew that they were getting close to the fight as they moved hideouts, presumably for the last time, and had been given items of clothing with a human scent on them to smell and memorize.

In his honest opinion, the whole operation was pretty ignorant. Whatever they were supposed to fight, was all so that a human girl could die at the hands of the vampire that created them. A vampire that they had only ever seen once, as the last thing they saw before they died. Creating all of them to fight while the human was being dealt with, was either overkill or a clear sign that they weren't going to win. He was pretty sure, that they weren't supposed to.

Bree, his only friend in this new life by way of sitting near him until he was forced to acknowledge her, told him about the reality of their existence. She had found love with another of the turned and he happened to be very close with their leader. Riley acted as their creator's spokesperson and spent most of his time with them keeping the rowdy ones in line and instructing the mass on their next move. According to Bree, all of it was mostly bullshit.

He knew that he wanted nothing to do with the battle, and planned to make a run for it in the opposite direction the second they set out for the battlefield. He had asked Bree to come with him, hoping to spare her whatever fate awaited, but she claimed to have a better plan instead.

"Hey." Her voice broke the silence of his contemplation. He made sure to remove her from his field or repulsion so that she wasn't suffering from being near him. "Where have you been?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"I went to talk to Dee and Riley." She fell down into a comfortable position beside him and smiled as she waited for him to ask for more information. He rolled his eyes and compiled. "And. . ."

"We head for the water at dawn. When we reach the town, Victoria will look for the girl and we're supposed to take out whoever comes to her rescue or defense." He shook his head dismissively, the vampire who created them was not good at this. She had no objective reasoning and could not see how her absence and oversite where going to be what caused her demise.

"Riley says that once we get there, they'll be waiting for us. They picked a spot for the fight that will keep the most unstable newborns from doing any damage to the town."

"What do you mean?" Fred turned to see her sporting her triumphant smile. The first time he saw it was when he finally responded to her incessant chatter. Their relationship mainly consisted of her steering him in random directions and him letting her think that she was successful in her obvious manipulation.

"Riley has a plan. He says that once we get there and we let the stupid ones get themselves killed, we should be good to go." This seemed like something to be intrigued and excited by, but Fred mostly just wanted to avoid it. He had no stake in the game, he was just waiting for things to get stupid enough that he could go and never have to see them again.

"Well, I hope that everything works out for you-"

"Stop it, you're coming." Bree shut him down with her no-nonsense tone of voice. It was cute enough to laugh at, but Fred respected her enough not to.

"I don't want any part of this fight, B. I just want to go away and figure this shit out on my own."

Bree took his hand and leaned further into his side.

"I know that you don't care. I'm not trying to make you fight or do anything that you don't want. I just know, that when this is over, we'll be free. We won't have to stick beside the rest of these screamers and we'll get to figure it out on our own. Diego and I have convinced Riley to come with us, and I really want you to come too."

Fred had always felt that he was better alone. He knew that there was a lot to learn about the world he was in now, and he was convinced that he'd figure it out by himself. But, Bree was his only friend, and as easy as it would be to say goodbye to her and never see her again, he found himself wanting to stick around and get to know her better. Even though he could, he knew living this vampire life would be really boring on his own.

He let out an exaggerated sigh, peaking Bree's interest, and nodded slowly at the prospect of her proposal.

"I guess we'll see how this all plays out. I am pretty interested in those giant wolves you mentioned." Fred's casual tone did nothing to quell her excitement. She let out a squeal before wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing as hard as she could.

"Ow."


	13. Chapter 13

"Isabella Marie Swan." Bella walked across the stage, collecting her high school diploma. She took a moment at the end of the platform to move her tassel to the other side. She looked out at the audience to see Jacob, Quil, Seth, and Embry jumping up and down and shouting her name. Billy and Charlie, who sat a row in front of them smiled proudly at her and discretely wiped away their tears.

After the ceremony, Bella was swept into a group hug. "Thank you, boys." She laughed at the poster that they had made. "Congraduation! Nice play on words."

"It's more like they ran out of room on the poster board after making that 'C' so damn big." Billy came up to give Bella his own hug of congrats while Charlie held in a giggle.

"Dad!" Jacob whined, making a face behind the Swan's back as they embraced.

"Congratulations, sweetheart." Charlie mumbled his words into the crown of his only daughters head as he held onto her for dear life. He knew they were almost out of time, as her college career started early with a summer program on campus that kicked off in a few days. Bella made plans to spend her night at a party on the reservation. She'd finish packing up the next day and then he'd see her off at the airport that next morning.

"Don't hold on too tight, you might fuse together." The sound of Jacob getting smacked across the head brought a smile to everyone's face.

"Allow me to escort these hooligans off the premises." Billy laughed as he gave Charlie a quick goodbye nod. "I'll see you later at Harry's?"

"Sure thing." They went their separate ways, Bella and Charlie stopping off to have a celebratory lunch at their favorite diner. The chef whipped up a special pineapple pie, just for Bella.

They made it back home around five in the afternoon. Bella, after changing into some warmer clothes for the bonfire, made her way into the living room, where Charlie was watching baseball. She sat down next to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Hey, dad."

"Hey. You headed out?"

"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first." Charlie turned the volume down and turned to look at his daughter. "What's on your mind?"

"You and I, we never really talk about our emotions. We don't really feel the need to, but sometimes there are things that we just have to say. I'm eighteen and I've graduated high school, technically, my childhood is over. I don't want to end this chapter of my life without saying how I feel." She took her father's hands into her own and looked him in the eyes. The same chocolate brown colored irises looked back at her.

"Growing up with mom, It always felt like there was a piece of the puzzle missing. Mom never talked about it and I didn't ask because I didn't want to make her feel bad. I never disagreed with your decision to stay here. This place is your home and these people are your family. You take care of this tiny town. You have friends on both sides and you make sure everyone gets along. You worked your way up from beat cop to Chief of Police and you've maintained that position because you're great at your job. I just. . . I've never said it before, and I wanted you to know without a shadow of a doubt. I love you so much, dad. You are an honest and kind-hearted man, an amazing father, and I have and always will be proud to call you my dad."

"Bella. . ." They wrapped their arms around each other and held on tight as they cried. Charlie was overwhelmed.

Bella held back her tears and focused all of her energy on every part of that moment. The way her dad smelled, the sound of his awkward laugh, the paint on the walls, the faintest sounds of baseball in the background. She was choosing to leave this all behind, but she never wanted to forget this moment, her last moment with her father.


	14. Chapter 14

Bella took her time, walking through the woods on the reservation to reach the pack's secret spot on First Beach. The moon was pretty high in the sky, small clouds littered the starry night. There was a soft breeze coming from the shore and the smells of sea salt and firewood it carried were quite inviting.

Bella stopped at the break in the trees to watch everyone. Seth, Brady, Collin, and Quil were running around closer to the water. There was a buffet set up on the nearest picnic table, where Emily, Leah, and Kim where conversing. Sam, Jared, Paul, and Embry were eating by the fire. There was a radio on the picnic table and soft music mixed with the sounds of laughter, waves, and the crackling fire. It was a picture perfect moment. As Bella took the time to commit it to memory, she couldn't help, but notice Jacob's absence.

"What are you doing?" Bella laughed at Jake's exaggerated whisper as he came up behind her.

"I'm just watching." He swung his arm over her shoulder and pulled her into him.

"Why?" She responded with a shrug as Jacob began to walk her closer to the group.

"You know, you don't have to feel like an outsider with us. They all know you and they want you here." Bella went to make a comment but Jacob quickly placed his hand over her mouth. "Every single one of them loves you, I promise." Bella licked the inside of his hand. He screamed in outrage and took off running toward the water.

"Hi, Bella!" Emily motioned for her to join the ladies at the table. Leah handed her a plate and Kim offered her a welcoming smile. "Congratulations, Bella. Graduation is such a big milestone in someone's life." "Not as big as dying." Leah countered in between bites of her sandwich. Emily and Kim fell into an awkward silence while Bella finished filling her plate.

"Both of those statements are very true. Though I'm not sure how I feel about graduating just yet. I don't think it's really sunk in. How does it feel for you, Kim? You've been out of school for a week now." Kim sighed in relief as the conversation got back on track. "It feels pretty good, to not have to get up so early and to know that I get to choose what I study from now on."

"Please tell me you're going to school to become a veterinarian." Leah's joke spurred them all into a fit of laughter and a rather weird conversation about the similarities and differences of the wolves.

Bella had gotten really close to everyone in the month since Victoria and Riley's visits. When the wolf on patrol caught his scent in the forest leading towards her house, they came out in full force to defend her. Jacob practically jumped through her bedroom window in wolf form to get to her and make sure she was okay. It was near impossible to get everyone to calm down long enough for her to explain the situation. After that, there wasn't a day that went by where Bella wasn't with at least one of the pack members. In no time she developed unique rapports with all of them.

The group came together shortly after. They passed out slices of graduation cake and sat around the fire. Bella fell silent watching them all talk and laugh with each other.

"Hey. Where's your head at?" Jacob tapped Bella on the knee to get her attention but was surprised to find tears streaming down her face. It didn't take long for everyone else to notice and the group got quiet as they asked her what was wrong.

Bella wiped her face and took a deep breath to calm down.

"I'm sorry. I just. . . I can't thank you enough. I don't deserve any of the things you all have done for me. You shouldn't have cared enough to do them."

She turned to Sam, Jared, and Paul. "You shouldn't have come to town in the middle of the night to look for me."

She looked at Quil and Embry. "You shouldn't have protected me that day in the woods."

She looked at Jacob who was seconds away from crying. "You shouldn't have wanted to be my friend after you found out the truth."

She looked at Leah, whose face was a perfect mask of indifference, though Bella had learned to read her eyes and knew exactly how she was feeling. "You shouldn't have protected me every day for the past month. Even if you did, you shouldn't have spent that time actually getting to know me and becoming one of my closest friends."

"Tomorrow, you guys are going to fight for me. You're going to stand by my side while I do something that you don't agree with, while I become your enemy. You're here, spending the night celebrating and saying goodbye to me. I'm just so grateful for everything you've done for me." Bella sobbed lightly as Jacob pulled her to his chest. They sat in silence, thinking about what she'd said.

"It's impossible to hate you." Leah's voice caught everyone's attention. She shifted uncomfortably under their gaze but continued on.

"You're the exact opposite of annoying and obnoxious. You're quiet and smart. You're too smart actually, you pay way too much attention and you know way more than anyone's comfortable with, but you don't flaunt it. You never talk about it, you just know people deeply and understand them at their worst and their best. You care so much about the people around you, it's impossible for them to not do the same to you." The look on everyone's face was stunned. Bella looked her in the eye and let her know that she understood what she was saying.

"Wow," Quil leaned over to Embry. "That was out of character."

"You are an absolute idiot, though." Leah started up again.

"There she is."

"I mean, you want to spend . . . forever, as a heartless, frozen, bloodthirsty demon who smells like someone poured bleach over a pile of candy and then lit it on fire!"

Bella snickered, releasing a wave of chuckles throughout the group.

"However, you also choose to spend all of your time with a bunch of furry ass monsters who share a hive mind. What I'm saying is, you can't really judge when you're a freak among freaks."

Emily started a slow clap and soon everyone was applauding Leah's speech. She gave a half-hearted bow before she started threatening people to never mention it.

Paul stood up as everyone started to calm down. "My turn."

Embry and Quil donned identical surprised faces at his announcement. "What the hell is happening?"

"Bella. I know we call you pale face and vampire girl. Well, mainly I do." He confessed to their laughter. "To be fair, you're not doing anything to make either of those nicknames any less true." Bella nodded as the laughter continued. "But you are also a wolf girl. No matter how long you live, wherever you go or however many lee- popsicles you meet. You will always be a wolf girl."

Bella, touched by the sincerity and respect in his eyes, let out a shaky breath.

"Paul." "Shut up!" He shook his head vigorously as he sat back down. "Nope." "Ok." She nodded.

"To the wolf girl!" Seth called out as he raised his last piece of cake high in the air. "Here, here!"

Bella's smile took up half of her face as they cheered to her. "I love you guys."

Quil howled at the top of his lungs. "Oh my God!" Bella buried her face in her hands and laughed hysterically as they all howled together. She looked to the sky as the clouds parted, revealing the full moon.

 _This_ , Bella thought, _I will never forget this._

She let the last of her tears fall and wiped them away, as she turned to see the smiling faces of everyone looking at her expectantly. She took a deep breath and howled into the night.


	15. Chapter 15

Dawn broke as the sun peeked over the horizon. A thick group of clouds made quick of swallowing it up, keeping the vampires safe from the direct sunlight. The group was stood at the edge of a lake. It was the quickest way to get to their destination.

The group was separated into subsections. The majority of the newborns were split into two camps. Fred, Bree, and Diego stood off to the side of one group, the closest to Riley. He stood atop a small boulder on the lake shore. Victoria stood right beside him. She addressed the group with quick and simple instructions. Riley had gone over everything the night before.

Some of the newborns were captivated by the face and voice of the woman who'd made them, others were less than enthralled, but made no outward expression of that. As she finished her speech, the vampires turned back to their conversations. Victoria wasn't focused on them, as she gave Riley his orders once again.

They waited until the time was right, however, Victoria was going about measuring that. They fell into formation behind their creators, and with that first step, Victoria and Riley led their army of newborns into the water.

* * *

The wolf pack was starting their day. They had all spent the night at Sam and Emily's house sprawled out in the living room. Emily, Sue, and Kim were making a huge breakfast for everyone. The plan was for the imprints and the elders to stay in the Clearwater house and be guarded by the two youngest wolves.

Jacob left the main floor of the house in search for Bella. She was set up in the guest bedroom. The window was open and Bella was perched on the small bit of roof just outside of the room. Jacob stuck his head out and leaned against the frame. "Did you get any sleep at all?" Bella pulled her attention from the tree line to give Jake a welcoming smile. "Did you honestly think that I would?" "Well. . . no, not really." Jake laughed.

Bella turned her attention back to the woods. "What are you doing out here?" The wind picked up and rustled the trees. Two birds flew around each other before stopping at the bird feeder. "I just wanted to see the sunrise." Jacob adopted a troubled expression as they sat in the silence. "You sound like it's the last time you'll get to see one." Tension formed in Jacob's back as she remained silent. "Bells, come on. I know today is pretty stressful, but don't treat it like a death sentence. Icky Vicky's not going to get anywhere near you."

Bella turned toward the window. She took Jacob's hand and climbed back into the room. The second her feet touched the floor she was engulfed in his arms. "No matter what, I will always have your back." Bella relaxed into his arms. "I love you, too."

Breakfast was an event. The most Bella was used to was three or four people at a table. The boys were loud and they took up a lot of space. The women got to make their plates first because they made the food and ate the least. They walked through the buffet style set up and made their ways to the living room, porch, or backyard to eat and converse. The women set themselves at the table and exchanged polite conversation to distract themselves from the day's upcoming events.

After breakfast, the pack had another meeting going over positions and the game plan before everyone headed out and made their way towards the Clearwater residence. It was there that the goodbyes were said.

Sam and Jared spoke quickly with the elders before they headed inside and Sam and Jared took Emily and Kim aside to say goodbye in private. Leah and Seth talked with their parents, Quil spoke with his grandfather, and Jacob exchanged a word with his father. Sam gave some last minute encouragement and direction to Collin and Brady. After the elders and the imprints were in the house, the wolves made their way to the woods. Bella stayed back, to give them all time to undress and shift into their wolf forms.

She made her way to the front porch of the house, where Billy was waiting for her. "I knew you weren't going to leave without saying goodbye." He chuckled pulling her into a hug. "No, never." She pulled away, a serious look on her face. "I do have a favor to ask you, though." Billy gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "I'll take care of him, Bella, don't worry." She let out a heavy breath.

She knew that her father wouldn't simply allow her to disappear off the face of the earth. She reached into her jacket pocket and produced a letter she had written. She didn't use any of the words that she wasn't supposed to say, which ended up making the whole thing pretty vague and conceptual, but she couldn't leave him with nothing.

"I don't want him to suffer in missing me." She handed him the letter. "It's not my place to tell him your tribes secret, nor is it safe to tell him about the Cullen's, but I don't want him to spend his life looking for me. If you could tell him just enough so that he's not lost in the dark. Let him know that I'm okay. That I made a decision and I'm living the life I want to live. Let him know that I will always be thinking of him and I love him. That I'm happy and safe and taking care of myself."

Her voice caught in her throat and Billy wrapped her in another hug as she burst into tears. She held onto him for dear life. "Even if that's not what happens. Even if I don't ever make it past those woods today. Tell him all of that anyway. Make sure he's eating healthy and that he finds time to go out. Keep him from shutting in. Get him a date if that's possible." Billy laughed at that, causing his own waterworks to spill over. "Just make sure that his life doesn't end with mine. That my absence doesn't mean he's alone." Billy and Bella looked at each other, through blurry tearstained eyes. Bella smiled at him, one last time, before giving him a kiss on the cheek and turning to walk away.

By the time she reached the tree line, she had wiped the tears from her face and calmed her breathing down. There was nothing she could do about her red puffy eyes, and she didn't really care at the moment. Jake was the only wolf left, as the rest had already headed to the battlefield. He pressed his nose into her stomach while giving her a sympathetic whine. She buried her face in his fur before giving him a kiss on the nose and moving to climb on his back.

Once she was on there and had a good hold on tufts of hair, to keep her from falling, Jacob stood to his full height and began his journey to the field. He didn't run too fast, scared she'd fall off. He settled for a speedy trot and they made it to the clearing in thirty-five minutes. The wolves all huddled together, Jacob taking a moment to let Bella down. They went over the perimeter and got into position.

Jake came to stand beside her. He sat down on his hind legs and she leaned into his side. The wind picked up as Bella closed her jacket tight and burrowed further into Jake's fur for warmth. There was a moment of silence as a thick group of clouds made their way over the surface of the battlefield, blocking out the sun.

Once the last rays of direct sunlight had been covered, Jake shot up into a rigid standing position and began to growl at the far end of the clearing. Bella closed her eyes and took a breath. As she exhaled all of the tension left her body. She trained her face into a neutral expression and positioned herself beside and slightly behind Jacob as the first pale figure emerged from the woods.


	16. Chapter 16

**Here we go!**

There was a group of about forty vampires standing in a loose formation at the other end of the clearing. They were all in a fighting stance, ready to pounce and hissing in Bella's direction. She looked at their tattered and soaked clothes and their pale skin and blood red eyes.

Bella stood stock still and waited in silence for her initial fear to pass. As her muscles began to relax with the realization that they were not attacking her, Bella took a step forward. Jacob growled lowly but didn't make a move to close the distance between them.

Bella did a quick scan of the group and found no faces she recognized. She cleared her throat before looking at the trees behind them.

"Victoria?" Her voice wasn't very loud, but there was a steadiness behind it. "We don't have to do this. I don't want to fight with you."

An eerie laugh poured through the trees as more vampires merged from the woods a good yard away from the others. Jacob took his position directly behind her, making sure that one paw was slightly in front.

This group of vampires was smaller, just under thirty. They were also in tattered and soaked clothes, but they stood tall and walk deliberately. They stood silently, close together in a line before an eight-foot-tall boulder. A young man stood out from the rest. His clothes, though also soaked, were nicer than the rest. He wore layers and hiking boots and he stood further back, with his hands and ankles crossed as he leaned against the side of the boulder.

"You stupid little human." A high pitched voice that sounded like bells came from the top of the boulder as Victoria emerged, her fiery red mane of hair rising to reveal an impossibly beautiful and equally well-dressed vampire, her eyes pitch black with rage that was radiating off of her.

"What on earth makes you think that you stand a chance against me? You insignificant, weak and pathetic excuse for a blood bag!" Her voice rang out among the clearing. Jacob shifted his weight and Bella took a deep breath as she clenched her fists.

"Edward isn't my mate. Killing me won't do anything to him. He won't even notice! He left me here because he didn't want me to become a vampire. He didn't want to spend forever with me, but I want to be turned. Laurent was going to take me to you. He was going to help us come to an understanding before-"

"Before your mutts slaughtered him! I don't care if you want to become a vampire. Of course, you want to be one. You don't deserve it. Even your bunny munching Cullens knew that. You don't get to spend eternity traveling the world to find something that makes you interesting. You don't get to be strong, fast, immortal, and superior just because you want to. You ruined my life! I'm going to end yours."

The vampires beneath her stayed silent, their expressions shifting during her rant. The group closer to Bella cheered and hissed as Victoria yelled. The man at the base of the boulder wore a look of concern. His eyes were trained on the human girl as she let her frustration and anger seep into her expression and body language. Riley let a smile form on his lips. She was not backing down. This would be interesting.

"I'm going to make your death as excruciating and long as possible. I'll slit the throat of every person in this town, I'll soak the streets with their blood! I'll dangle all of your loved ones in front of you before I make you watch as I kill them and drown you with their blood. I'll burn this whole town to the ground and make you choke on the ashes!" Victoria was screeching. Each wolf was shaking with anger as they fought their instincts and held their ground. The wild vampires cheered once again, while the calm ones hid their flinches. Riley stood up off of the boulder and placed his hands in his pockets as he watched Bella's jaw clench and her left eye twitch.

"James is still dead!" Her voice was not nearly as loud as Victoria's, but it was still enough to quiet everyone down and take their attention. "You could spend the next fifty years torturing me. You could keep plucking people from their lives and turning them into your slaves and soldiers until you were powerful enough to take down the Cullens. You could break them apart piece by piece and dance on their ashes, but you will still be alone. None of this is going to fill the void. You're just wasting your time and energy and all of these people's lives for what can't be more than a fleeting moment of peace." Bella knew there was no getting her to back down, she knew exactly how this was going to end for the two of them. She was going to take this opportunity to say as much as she could.

"Are seriously trying to explain what the loss of a mate feels like, to ME?" Victoria was livid, but she hadn't made a move to get off of the boulder yet. Riley, who was right below her, and Jacob had their ears and eyes trained on her every move.

"I am hundreds of years old and an ACTUAL VAMPIRE! You're a useless human who thinks she knows and deserves everything because some vegetarian asshole dumped her. I know the pain will never go away. I know that nothing comes of all of this except a few moments of entertainment. I took a bunch of hookers and bums from the streets of Seattle and turned them into chew toys for your guard dogs." As she ranted she failed to notice the group of rowdy vampires slowly coming out of their crouched stances. Looks of confusion and hesitancy on their faces.

"I could give the bite to turn everyone in this town before you could finish another one of your righteous sentiments. I know it doesn't matter. I know it won't fix anything or make me feel better. I KNOW JAMES IS DEAD!" She continued on, with her eyes locked onto Bella's.

"The only people that I cared about are gone. Which means that there is nothing in this world that matters to me. I will do whatever I damn well please." A terrifying smile took over her face, causing Jacob's hackles to rise.

"You keep forgetting that I'm superior. You keep forgetting that I'm a monster. I will be a monster until the end of time!" She drew her hand forward to point at Bells.

"You, on the other hand. Your time is up."

 **I hope you all are liking it so far.**

 **Constructive criticisms are welcome.**

 **Next chapter is the battle.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Here we go!**

"Charge!" Victoria's voice bellowed as she commanded her army to go forward. Bella tensed as she felt Jacob position himself for the fight. There was a beat of silence as both sides remain still.

The newborns standing before Victoria were locked in their stance, stone-faced and unresponsive. The vampires closest to Bella and the wolves were huddled together sharing looks of concern and uncertainty while words were exchanged, too soft and quick for others to hear.

"What the hell are you idiots doing?" Victoria's voice filled the clearing once again. "Kill them!"

A handful of newborns broke from the group and charged towards the four wolves positioned in a semicircle in front of Bella. The wolves stayed locked in their positions, eyes on the approaching vampires. The newborns slowed to a stop in front of the wolves, confused by their lack of response.

In an instant, the two closest wolves pounced on the group and began to rip the vampires to shreds. The sound of their marble flesh fracturing and crumbling under the weight of the wolves paws, sharp teeth, and powerful jaws shook the remaining vampires to their core.

In less than a minute, the five vampires had been reduced to chunks strewn along the grass before them. The two wolves worked together to push all of the pieces into one pile before returning to their places in front of Bella. Silence took over the field once more.

A fire arrow shot out from beyond the treeline and landed in the center of the pile and the remains exploded in an intense purple flame. A thick plume of charcoal black smoke rose from the violet blaze, sending the scent of burned vampire venom throughout the entire clearing. Two vampires from the now terrified group of newborns took off in the opposite direction of the wolves. Quickly after, a few others followed their lead.

Victoria opened her mouth to scream in outrage, but was cut off as Bella called their attention once again.

"Listen to me, please. This is not the only way to live your new lives. Not every vampire in the world is fighting and dying. You can leave, find others like yourself to help you navigate this new world. Feed discreetly, stay out of the sun, and keep your vampirism a secret from humans. Those are the rules. You can go to Volterra, Italy to seek the Kings if you want more information and guidance. You don't have to die today for someone who doesn't even care about you."

By the time she was done speaking, ten more newborns had run away. There were wolves positioned further back in the woods to steer the fleeing vampires in the opposite direction of civilization. Many ran back the way they came, and some took to the mountains in the direction of the Canadian border.

The remaining twenty stood close together and looked to the bolder for guidance. "You cowards," Victoria tried again, "You'd let some week human and her oversized pets scare you away? You are vampires, the top of the food chain, the most feared creatures imaginable. This bitch and her bitches are beneath you in every way. Fight back!"

The newborns let out a cry of aggression and charged forward. They learned from the earlier defeat and spread out to attack each wolf. They divided, five vampires to each wolf, and sped across the clearing. Once they'd reached to point of no return, each vampire was shocked as five more wolves emerged from different places in the woods.

After the first group had been taken out and more vampires had started to run, Sam had called to Collin and Brady through their wolf connection. They said a quick goodbye to the people in the Clearwater house before they made their way to the clearing, steering fleeing vampires in the opposite direction as they went. Leah shifted back into her wolf form after releasing the arrow.

They came from the trees and met up with their fighting partner. Collin and Brady took up Jacob's position beside Bella as he and Leah advanced on the now trapped vampires. Seth took his place by Sam's side and Quil ran to Embry's. As Jacob and Leah made it to where Jared was positioned, he ran to Paul. Each pair, after their seamless transitions, wasted no time pouncing on their five vampires.

Victoria jumped down from her position on the rock. The group of twenty-four vampires turned toward Victoria and Riley shifting their barricade into a cage. "What the hell is this bullshit? Go help them, they're being slaughtered out there!" Victoria shouted at the line of vampires. The rest of her rant died on her lips as she took note of them closing in on her. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, Victoria, it's alright." She turned to face a confident and smirking Riley. He took a few steps into her personal space, allowing the vampires to complete their circle and successfully cage her in. "What-" "You shouldn't feel too bad about this failure, you had no idea what you were doing. It's actually quite impressive that you managed to get this far." Riley spoke slowly in a condescending tone as he revealed in the power shift between them." The sound of the remainder of her army being decimated barely registered.

Victoria closed the space between them, placing her hands on Riley's crossed arms in an attempt at a loving gesture. She dropped her voice and peered at him through her lashes like she did every time they spent the night together, though the fear never left her eyes. "Riley, sweetheart-"

"Nope." he cut her off again, with a wag of his finger. "You've talked enough today. Now it's your turn to listen. Maybe you'll learn something; like if you want a group of people to do your bidding, don't call them expendable bums and hookers to their faces." Victoria tightened her grip on his forearms as her heightened senses informed her that she was indeed trapped.

"Also," Riley continued as a sinister smile grew on his face. "If you want a group of people to do what you say, don't put someone else in charge of them." He leaned down, his eyes locked on hers and their lips inches away from each other. "I'm the first face they saw when they woke up. I've been the voice of authority every moment of their vampiric life. When I give an order, they listen, regardless of who my orders come from."

Bella, Collin, and Brady had been traveling cautiously among the battlefield to set alight each new pile of dismembered vampires that emerged. There were seven different purple fires spread out amongst the clearing. The wolves emerged with little to no damage aside from some sore muscles and patches of their fur slick with venom. They met in the center of the field, Bella covered on all sides as they watched the group of vampires surrounding Victoria. The fight wasn't over until she was dead.

"I do have to thank you, though," Riley spoke softly to her, his eyes softened. "Picking me to be your right hand. Seeing that potential in me, it changed my life. I know that this is who I was meant to be. A lot of these people are better off with this new life you've given them. Even though this didn't go the way you wanted, you did do some good." Victoria's grip on him tightened even more. Her nails had broken through his layers of clothes.

"I'm sorry you got betrayed like this, but I have to put me the first. No one else will. I know you understand." She offered him a pained smile and a nod. "I do understand, Riley. I'm not angry." The sound of her nails breaking the surface of his skin brought Riley's attention to what was happening beyond the vortex of her blood red irises. He felt like an idiot for still being influenced by her.

"I'm pissed." Victoria yanked both of Riley's arms off in one swift motion. He let out an ear-splitting scream and fell to his knees as the surrounding vampires pounced on Victoria.

From his place in the trees, a few yards away, Diego heard the sound of Riley's distress and ran to his aid. Bree followed closely, not willing to let her mate go out into who knows what without her. Fred came with her, not willing to let her get hurt by the idiotic events that he'd managed to keep her out of so far.

The group of vampires put up a good fight, but so did Victoria. Her only thought being survival, she was strategic in her defense and vicious in her offense. Dodging in ways that caused the group to harm each other and landing severe blows that incapacitated them.

The wolves had moved the second Riley screamed. They surrounded the group to ensure that Victoria didn't escape. Diego came upon them, making his way to Riley who was at the edge of the brawl. He crouched down beside him and dove into the madness to retrieve his arms. Victoria had managed to reduce the number of vampires actively attacking her down to half. She took advantage of their moment of regrouping to launch herself straight up and land just past the wall of wolves.

Bella had been left by herself on the other side of the clearing. She watched as Victoria got loose from the large group and moved as quick as she could. She retrieved the small knife from her back pocket as the group turned to face her. Victoria shook off the closest wolves as Bella ran forward with her arm and the knife extended. Just as Victoria shot to the edge of the clearing she and everyone else froze at the new scent of fresh blood came rushing over them with the harsh winds.

The vampires worked to put themselves back together again, the pain of their recently lost limbs winning over the scent of her blood. Bella stood between the wolves and Victoria with her arm raised. She held the knife in her right hand as blood flowed from the gash that ran along her left arm. Her eyes were set on Victoria's, brown to black. "Don't run, Vicky. This is the last chance you'll ever get. This is the closest you'll ever get to me." She took a step forward as the wolves followed suit, some taking to the cover of the trees to make their way closer to Victoria while she was thoroughly distracted.

"Make no mistake, you're dying today, but right now is your last chance to get to me. I'm right here, bleeding." Bella continued to move closer, Victoria taking steps closer as well. Bree made her way to Diego and Riley as the Wolves held their growls in to maintain their stealth.

Fred looked among the field before him. From the piles of ash that were strewn about, to the broken vampires huddled below a crumbling boulder. The giant wolves, like nothing he'd ever seen before, stood rigidly and focused as they walked on their tiptoes making almost no sound. The loudest noise throughout the whole field was the smooth and commanding voice of the only human in sight.

She stood before Victoria bleeding proudly as the wind carried her scent and voice throughout the clearing. Fred quickly held his breath and sent a wave of disgust to the remaining vampires, to ensure none of them latched on to her scent. He watched the tense scene play out, fascinated by this small girls bravery and quite curious about the outcome.

"James ran into certain death for less, but even he got to have a taste before he died. Don't you want to see what all the fuss was about? If I'm the last thing you taste before you die, you'll be that much closer to him." Bella continued forward, knowing that even if they couldn't get her before she was bitten, at least she'd be in transition.

Victoria could feel every cell in her body burning with self-preservation, but as she watched the bleeding girl, a small patch of sunlight broke through the clouds and illuminated her raised arm. The crescent shape of Jame's bite mark caught the sun and began to sparkle. It was a tenth of the amount that vampires do, but it was enough to bring forth the image of his eyes, smile, and voice as he looked upon her throughout the years that they'd known each other.

Victoria remembered the sound of his cries as she approached the ballet studio. The smell of a fire starting and the knowledge that she was outnumbered sent her in the opposite direction of her mate. When he needed her the most, she left him to die alone. Those same instincts pleaded with her now to not take the bait, to stay safe and run away to a life filled with isolation and heartache. She didn't deserve to continue living, not when she'd forsaken her most basic instinct. To stay by her mate's side, to live, fight, and die together.

"It's me and you, baby." Was what James would say after every feeding when they were high on bloodlust, after every fight as they stood over the burning bodies of their enemies, as they lay together tangled in each other. With him was the only place she had ever felt safe, sane, or seen. She couldn't do this anymore.

"Me and you, baby." She whispered as her eyes filled with venom tears that could never spill over. The break in the clouds was closed as Victoria squeezed her eyes shut and, with her final breath let go of every ounce of pain as she sprinted to Bella's outstretched arms.

The sound of Victoria's scream shook the ground. It made everyone's spine a little straighter and shocked Fred enough that he retracted his gift. Bree ran to his side gripping his wrist and pulling him away from the scene. Fred turned to reassure her. As he opened his mouth and took a breath to speak, the scent of Bella's free-flowing blood finally reached him.

Time froze as Victoria took her first steps towards Bella.

Bella's eyes closed peacefully as her arms reached for Victoria's approaching form.

Jacob leaped forward from his place in the trees behind Victoria.

Fred's mind and vision went the way of his blood red eyes, pitch black.

 **Hey guys!**

 **I really love the way this chapter turned out.**

 **We're reaching a turning point in the story if you can't tell.**

 **Hope you like it, till next time.**


	18. Chapter 18

Victoria's guttural screech of pain was drowned out by the violent and terrifying sound of Fred's howl. He reached Victoria before she could even register the sound. Now directly in the path of her momentum, he shoved his hand through her chest and ripped out a large chunk of her center. He snapped her arms off at the hands, then the elbows, then the shoulders. He kicked at her knees, snapping off the bottom part of her legs.

Victoria fell to the ground, already in ten pieces. The pain didn't register, instead, she looked up at the sky and let a small smile settle on her face before a foot went through it. Fred stomped on the main part of her body until it was nothing more than mush. Only then, did his thunderous cry cease.

Jacob had stopped his pursuit to watch in awe as Victoria was cut down in a matter of seconds. The other vampires had just started to look towards the noise after initially flinching away from it.

Fred looked up from his kill and locked eyes with the human that stood before him. Brown eyes met blood red as a thick wave of hot air shot out of Fred's body in a dome.

The wave hit everyone like a steel wall. The vampires, who were familiar with the feeling of Fred's power, fell into the fetal position with their backs to him as they tried to think of anything other than what was happening.

The wolves, who had never experienced that level of concentrated nausea and disgust, found themselves in a world of hell. They fell to the ground writhing in excruciating discomfort that was amplified tenfold through their shared minds. Quickly, each wolf shifted back into their stark naked form and took to vomiting and dry heaving. Tears and mucus ran down their bright red faces and whimpers and cries of pain from both species filled the air.

Bella stood still as the wave of warm air crashed into her. The sounds of everyone and everything else fell away under the heat of this vampire's gaze. She had never seen him before this moment, and she didn't think she'd ever truly see anything again. He was gorgeous. His slim figure towered over her almost a foot taller.

The stern look on his face did nothing to hide his handsome features. His clenched jaw accentuated his sharp jawline. His thick, dark blonde brows were furrowed and serious above his wide and expressive eyes. His slim nose came to a subtle point above full pink lips. His face was framed by thick golden blonde curls.

He took a step toward her and Bella practically fell forward to close the distance between them. He placed his hands on her hips to keep her steady. Bella kept her eyes trained on his face, taking in every feature and committing them to memory. His stern expression gave way to a concerned one as he took her bleeding arm in his delicate hands. He lifted it to his mouth and made quick work of sealing the cut with a small amount of venom from the tip of his tongue.

A deep moan escaped from Bella's parted lips as she was overwhelmed by the sensation of his venom. It shot straight past pain and into a scary level of pleasure that she had never felt before. Once he knew she was healing, he wrapped his arms around her waist. Bella was quick to throw her arms around his neck as he lifted her off the ground. He shifted their position and place one arm under her knees. The other hand he set at the back of her neck as he pulled her into his chest and took off.

She burrowed into him as the world began to blur. Bella closed her eyes to the wind. She moved her nose to the nape of his neck and took deep breaths of his intoxicating scent as he carried her away.

 **I know, I know.**

 **This one is criminally shorter than the one before it,**

 **but I just wanted to put this part up as its own moment.**

 **This entire chapter takes place in under two minutes.**

 **It's all instincts and reactions without hesitation.**

 **I wanted it to feel just as quick as it happened.**

 **I'll be sure to post the next installment soon.**

 **Till next time!**


	19. Chapter 19

It took a good five minutes after Fred and Bella had left the clearing, for the effects of his ability to wear off and everyone to get their bearings. The wolves were quick to retreat to the woods as they cleaned themselves up in a nearby creek and got dressed in the clothes they had stashed away previously.

The vampires who were broken had fused back together by then. After a few words and some quick goodbyes, the majority of the newborns left, headed in the direction of the mountains, like Riley had instructed them. Diego and Bree went about the clearing dispersing the piles of ash and cleaning up the broken rocks.

Riley stood above the remains of Victoria, her red hair was the only solid part of her left. He reached down and plucked a thick curl from the mass. He tucked into his pocket before dropping a lighter in the center and stepping back as she burned bright indigo. The flames covered the venom and her hair, sizzling as the liquid dried up and charred the earth beneath her. The black, person-shaped scorch mark had a small amount of steam rising from it when the wolves returned.

It was only four this time. Three men and a woman made their way to the center of the clearing where they were met with Riley. He introduced Diego and Bree as they came up on either side of him. "So the rest are gone?" The tallest one who'd introduced himself as Sam asked.

"The only ones left alive were the ones that I'd told the full plan to before we got here." Jacob cut off Sam's response as he stepped forward. "What about the one that took Bella?" Riley nodded understandably. "That's Fred." "He's with us." Bree defended. "He's a good guy, he won't hurt her."

Jacob shook his head as the memory of what he'd just been through made him shudder. "I'm not inclined to believe that." "Think about, man." Diego countered. "If he wanted to kill her he would have done it immediately, instead of killing Victoria and then healing her before he carefully carried her away." "Not to mention he didn't use his ability on her." Bree added.

The wolves thought back on the horrific experience to realize that she hadn't made a sound. She remained standing and calm from what they could see through their turmoil. "Besides," Riley laughed, bringing them back to the present. "If I'm taking anything away from what happened today, It's that that little human can handle herself just fine."

"She's a total badass!" Bree agreed, she could hardly wait until they made their way back, she wanted to meet and learn everything about the girl who'd stood tall as an entire war was going on around her.

Jacob left the group, grumbling under his breath. Leah came to his side quickly, knowing what he needed to hear. "I thought you would be the happiest about this." He turned to her, a comical look of confusion on his face. "Why would you think that?"

"Because she's not alone anymore. You knew today was going to be her last day with us. She was going to go with Riley and start her new life as a bloodsucker. You were terrified because even though she would be able to take care of herself, you wouldn't be there to do it for her." Jacob let out a noncommittal noise.

Leah punched him in the arm playfully, a genuine smile on her face. "She imprinted, dude! Now she's gonna spend forever with someone who would die before he let anything happen to her. He'd probably try to kill himself if he ever hurt her. She's got the best protection in the world." At the sight of Jacobs pout, she quickly added, "Besides you, of course." That got a small chuckle out of him.

He looked off into the direction they had gone, shaking his head. "I don't like it."

"Well, you don't matter anymore." He turned to see the serious and far away look in her eyes. "She found her other half. He's everything to her now. Who she was before him, who she loved, who loved her, none of it matters. They are each other's top priority." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, knowing that she wasn't just talking about him and Bella anymore.

"At least she's going away, and you won't have to spend an eternity by her side due to some sick and twisted destiny. At least you don't have to hear her thoughts, see her memories. I mean you weren't even dating, it's not like you were engaged and -" Jacob pulled her into a warm hug. She tentatively placed her arms around him as she burrowed into his chest.

She pulled back after a few moments of vulnerability and adopted another playful expression. "Besides, you guys planned on staying best friends, even though you'd be mortal enemies. Now you're cutting each other off because she got a boyfriend?"

Jacob looked out at the clearing. "This is it. She's already got everything she needs to move on. She's got someone who would do all of this for her. Someone who got rid of her biggest threat in the blink of an eye, a new coven ready to meet her. This chapter's over. She's already moved into her new life."

Leah leaned into him as they watched Sam and Paul talk to Riley and the others. "We're apart of her new life too." Jacob moved to leave the clearing, Leah kept a lazy pace with him as they headed in the direction of home. "Are we?" He asked jokingly, earning another punch. "We're the werewolf's that defeated the vampire army that was out to get her. We're apart of her new life."

Jacob slowed to a stop at the edge of the trees. "Not all of us though, not Charlie." Leah shook her head sadly. "We can't-" "I know. We can't tell him the vampire's secret. Bella is right, it's against their laws and it would put him in danger. It's not our secret to tell." "No... But we have our own secrets. We have our own laws." Jacob looked at her mischievous expression and grew a blinding grin. "We make the laws." He grabbed Leah's hand and took off in the direction of the Swan house. "Can we stop for food on the way, at least. I'm starving."

Jacob's laughter in response was the last thing Sam heard before they were out of earshot. He knew their hearts were in the right place, he just hoped that they were making the right decisions.

He sent the vampires off in the direction of the Cullen house with strict feeding rules and a promise to meet up in the next few days. He and Paul made their way back to the Clearwater's victory-in-battle cookout.

 **Hey guys!**

 **So sorry for being away for so long. Life got really busy for me.**

 **I try to write a few chapters ahead, so I'm never stuck in writer's block.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Till next time.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Hey everybody! This is the longest chapter to date. I couldn't find a place to cut this chapter up. It's the official meeting of the main couple of the story, so I hope you enjoy it!**

Bella kept her eyes closed and her arms and legs wrapped tightly around the torso of the vampire that was whisking her away. The sound of the wind rushing past her ears kept her mind blank. She focused on the way their chests fit together, how secure she felt in his arms, and the tension in his back as he ran.

When they finally stopped, it felt like a new day. Bella could instantly feel the sun on her skin, they had broken through the clouds. She slowly opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. They were in a clearing of some kind. The sun seemed to be directly above their current location. Bella pulled back to look the now sparkling vampire in the face.

His irises were still pitch black, though his expression was less harsh. His eyes quickly scanned their surroundings. Once he deemed the area safe, he loosened his hold on her and allowed her to stand on her own. Bella turned to see a beautiful log cabin.

She took slow steps towards the house as she took in more of her surroundings. There was no one else around, which she expected, not even animals. She caught the quiet sounds of running water somewhere beyond the tree line. The peaceful silence of the empty forest was truncated by the harsh sound of the front door being opened.

The vampire had broken the lock with a swift twist and pushed the door open wide for her to go in first, before closing it behind them. The two of them stood in the doorway of the cabin, unsure of what to do next. Bella did a quick scan of the place. They were in the living room, the kitchen and dining area were off to the side and the main hallway that she guessed led to the bedrooms. The whole place was decently furnished with a lot of wood pieces and earth-toned fabrics. There was barely any dust on anything, and Bella quickly confirmed her suspicion as she located a calendar on the wall.

She walked to it to check the dates marked as Fred moved further into the house. He kept his distance but was completely focused on her. He took deep breaths to ensure that the other scents he smelled were just as faded inside of the house as they had been outside. He had yet to retract his dome of repulsion, ensuring that no living thing was even remotely close to them. He refused to look at her but was listening intently to the sound of her heart beating, waiting for any change in her pulse that might indicate distress or ailment.

"They were here two months ago." Fred snapped his head in her direction at the sound of her voice. He had heard it from his spot in the woods and thought it was nice. He was impressed with how commanding it was while also being soft and vulnerable. Hearing it again, inside the house and only feet apart, he was captivated. She had a smooth voice, it wasn't too deep but low enough to feel warm and comforting.

She turned to face him, her wide chocolate eyes finding his in the dark cabin. "The calendar hasn't been updated and the next visit isn't scheduled for another month and a half." Bella walked closer to him as the silence lingered. "I guess you would know that. Something tells me that you wouldn't have picked this place if the sents were potent enough for you to think that they might come back anytime soon."

A small grunt of surprise was his only response. Though he shouldn't be too surprised at her knowledge, Bree had mentioned that her and Riley's alliance was formed after she told him all that she knew of vampires. He watched her look around once more, paying close attention to her subtle shifts in her expression. She furrowed her brows and she thought, he could tell that shed come up with something when they lifted and smoothed.

"I'm gonna look around, take inventory of what they left behind." She looked at him once more, taking his silence and lack of movement as a nonobjection. She moved to the kitchen first, looking in all of the cupboards and cabinets to find a wide array of nonperishables. She moved to the hallway, wrapping her arms around herself. She was cold. Fred looked and found the fireplace with a pile of chopped firewood beside it. He quickly stacked them in the fireplace, ripping off a piece of venom soaked cloth and placing it in the pile. He used the lighter on the mantle and watched as it caught quickly and grew into a bright orange flame with a small violet center.

"Oh." Bella stood at the end of the room with a stack of clothes in her hand and a soft smile on her face. "Thank you." She was really touched by his consideration of her comfort, knowing that temperature was not something that vampires concerned themselves with. She looked to see a bashful expression cross his face. His eyes had returned to their dark red hue. She was glad that he was calmer and more expressive.

"I found some clothes in the master bedroom. They might not be a perfect match, your pretty tall, but I figured they be good enough to get out of your torn and dirty ones." Fred looked down at himself. His clothes were covered in mud and venom. He looked at her once again, offering a small thankful smile. She placed them on the small table next to the couch. "I'm gonna take a shower. There are two bathrooms, so you don't have to wait." He nodded softly. "Ok." He watched as she headed to the room.

He waited until she was done with her shower to go into the smaller bedroom and take his. He was quick, not taking time to do much else than get all the dirt off of his body and out of his hair. The clothes were loose and comfortable. The pants were a little high, but it didn't matter that much. His shoes had held up quite nicely through the day's activities. He brought them out to the front room and placed them besides Bella's by the front door.

Bella was making a quick meal of beans and rice. Her wet hair had been pulled into a braid, exposing her neck. Fred watched as she cooked, humming softly to herself. He listened to the sound of her heartbeat and watched her skin raise with every pump of blood through her body.

He had no desire to feed on her. Thinking back on his reaction to the sent of her blood. He had no doubt that it was the most delectable sent he'd ever come across, but he didn't want to drain her. Even when he used his venom to close the cut, he'd been able to control the amount he secreted, to not cause her harm. The taste of her blood had almost brought him to his knees. Even now he made sure not to think about it too much, as it evoked an inappropriate response from him. He quickly readjusted himself in his pants as she turned around, placing her food into a bowl.

She smiled up at him as she walked passed, taking a seat on the big green couch. He watched her as she ate, eyes focused on the dancing flames. She finished her food quickly, placing the bowl on the table beside her. Fred came closer as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "I've always been fascinated by fire. It's such a delicate and devastating force." Bella talked, hoping it would make him more comfortable. It seemed to be working as he sat down at the other end of the couch.

"I wonder why the fire is purple when vampires burn." Fred looked at the fire as well. The orange flames danced sporadically, the purple center having burned out while she was in the bathroom. "Potassium chloride burns violet. It's used to treat low blood levels, I guess it's prevalent in our venom. Or maybe not. I mean who knows if the elements of our makeup resemble anything that's ever been recorded in human science." Fred's rambling ceased at the sight of Bella's wide eyes trained on him. The look in them, he could not identify. "What's wrong?" he turned to her, quickly looking her over.

"Nothing." She let out a heavy breath as she blinked. "You have a beautiful voice."

"Oh." Fred looked at the fire, confused as to why she made him feel so different. "Thanks, so do you."

Bella hid her smile and blush in the crook of her arm. Fred held back a smirk as he could hear and smell the rush of blood to her cheeks. They let the crackling fire fill the comfortable silence between them for a few minutes.

"What's your name?" Bella finally blurted out, after going back and forth in her mind about how best to approach getting to know him. He turned to look at her once again. His blood-red eyes, illuminated only by the firelight, looked her over once again before answering. "Fred. What's yours?"

"Bella. Isabella Swan." He nodded softly to her response, a faraway look in his eyes. "I don't remember any more of my name than that. I don't even know if it's short for something."

"It's nice. I like it." Bella offered quickly, hoping to erase the frown on his beautiful face. "Thank you." He gave her a smile as he looked up at her through his eyelashes. Bella's breath caught in her throat. He shifted closer to her, eyes focused on hers.

"I should be thanking you, after everything you've done for me." Bella continued, hoping to distract him from her embarrassing reaction. "Killing Victoria and taking me somewhere safe after, you didn't have to do that."

He shook his head as he looked at the fire yet again. "I don't know why I did. One second I was holding my breath and making sure that the others weren't tempted and then the next thing I know…" He fell back on the couch with a deep sigh. Bella scooted closer to him, her arms still wrapped around her legs and her chin on her knees. "You took a breath."

"Yeah... I obliterated her. It wasn't enough to rip her head off her body. I had to crush her, to make sure she couldn't hurt you ever again. I healed your wound, I brought you here. I've been listening to your heartbeat and monitoring your breathing this entire time. There's this voice in the back of my mind that keeps telling me I have to be ready to pounce on anything that might try to hurt you. I have no idea why I'm doing any of this-" "Don't think." Bella stopped his panic and rambling in its tracks when she placed her hand over his. He stared at it, waiting for the tension it created to leave his body. "If you try to think your way out of it, you'll drive yourself insane. Just focus on what you're feeling, whatever that may be."

He looked up at her caring and patient eyes. The warmth of her hand felt like it was burning a brand onto his marble skin. The sound of her heart beating filled his ears again as the rise and fall her chest set the pace for his own unnecessary breathing. "I can't let anything happen to you." His voice was deep and serious with an underlying growl.

Bella shivered at the sound of his voice, squeezing his hand to reassure him that she was fine. "Ok." She nodded her head encouragingly. He shook his as he turned towards her, bring them closer together. "I don't understand." She rubbed her thumb along the back of his hand. "What all do you know about vampires?" He laughed at that, causing Bella to take her bottom lip firmly in between her teeth. "I know damn sure that I know a lot less than you."

Bella dropped her knees, kneeling on the back of the couch, as she took the hand she held into both of hers. She looked down at their different complections under the warm tint of the fire. Fred could hear her heart speed up as she fiddled with his fingers. He placed his other hand on top of hers to calm her down.

"Vampires mate for instincts recognize their other half and they get a primal urge to mark them. They pump venom into each other to change the other person's scent so that everyone knows they're taken. If a mate dies, the other dies shortly after."

"Victoria lost her mate, James, and that's why she did all of this." Bella nodded in confirmation, watching his face for when he would put it together.

"The Quileute wolves have something similar. They call it imprinting and it's essentially love at first sight. The second a wolf looks into the eyes of their imprint, their whole world changes. Suddenly the only thing keeping them grounded is that person. They would do and be absolutely anything for their imprint. Unlike vampires, it doesn't have to be a romantic bond, but it mostly ends up that way eventually."

"So you think it was 'love at first scent' for us?" Bella kept her eyes on their intertwined hands as she tried to find the best way to phrase it.

"I can't say for sure because I'm not a vampire yet. But, just going off of our interactions so far, I'd say your response to the scent of my blood has been nothing close to that of a predator and his prey. Not to mention your consideration for my comfort and your constant monitoring of my heartbeat and immediate panic at every change. I mean, you said it yourself, you won't let anything happen to me." She looked into his eyes again, they were slowly darkening.

"I can feel that that's true. I know that you won't let anything bad happen to me. When I saw you for the first time; standing over Victoria, covered in her venom and snarling, the only thing I felt was safe. When I looked into your black eyes, I knew that everything was going to be okay. Even now I feel-"

A gasp of surprise escaped Bella's lips as the tips of their noses collided, bringing to her attention just how close they had gotten. In an instant, Fred was back on his side of the couch with his face buried in the palm of his hand. Bella squirmed in her position and took deep breaths to bring her heart rate back down to normal, unaware that the scent of her body's reaction had filled the room. Fred cleared his throat as he shifted his position, attempting to hide his body's reaction.

The sound of the crackling fire engrossed the room once again.

"What do we do?" Fred asked in a husky voice once they'd calmed down.

"You could change me." Bella's voice was just as gravely and they both had to shake themselves out of the haze.

"How would that help?" Fred asked after clearing his throat once again.

"If I was a vampire, I'd be able to use my own instincts to confirm that the mating pull is what we're feeling. We'd both know for sure and be able to complete the mating bond. I wouldn't be so fragile, so you wouldn't have to worry so much. I'd also be strong enough to protect you. We'd be equals, Yin and Yang." Bella was sure her lip would start bleeding soon if she didn't stop chewing on it.

"But what if it doesn't, and what if we don't want to?" Fred's voice was quieter.

Bella let out a devastating breath and a chill came over her body at the thought of his rejection. "If that's not-" She kept her head down as she worked to keep her voice from quivering. "If we aren't actually mates, then there would be no harm done. If you don't want to be together, then we can end this now. Since I'm still human, we won't know the full effect of the mating pull. It should be easier to live the rest of your immortal life like you did before we met. I'm sure you'd find someone, and without the intense euphoric experience of mating, it should be easier to substitute."

She looked up at him, her voice strong once again. His expression was cautious and she made sure to maintain eye contact with him as she continued. "As for me, I'll be fine. You can bring me back to the reservation, the wolves will keep me safe while I'm still human. Riley should still be down there. He promised he'd turn me when this was all over, so I'll just get the bite from him-" A growl loud enough to shake the room and displaced the logs in the fireplace erupted from Fred's chest as his black eyes stayed locked on Bella's.

She offered him a mirthful smile as he calmed down. He raised both of his hands in a surrender of what his outburst proved. "You made your point. I wasn't trying to say that I didn't want to mate with you. I just wasn't sure that you'd want to mate with me. They call me Freaky Fred for a reason, I literally disgust everyone and everything that comes close to me."

Bella crawled into his personal space, resting her knees on top of his. "You do not disgust me." She smiled as she watched his eyes trail over her body. "I know we don't know each other that well, but something tells me that the more I get to know you, the more I'm going to want to know you." Fred nodded quickly as he sat up, making their noses touch yet again, and his eyes stayed locked on her slightly swollen lips.

"I've got to say," Fred whispered in his husky voice, taking Bella's breath away once again. "Your scent is the most delicious thing that I've ever smelled, and even though I'm not thirsting for your blood right now, I'm still very hungry." A shudder ran through Bella as the scent of her body's arousal filled the room yet again.

"Fred." Bella's breath quivered as her eyes closed. Fred's hands found the small of her back as he took in a deep breath of her delectable scent. "I want to know what the rest of your body tastes like."

A loud POP from the other side of the room broke their trance. Bella shrieked as she jumped from her place in Fred's lap. He was quick to react, taking the small shovel from the side of the fireplace and quickly scooping up the burning ember that had been launched from the fire, back into the flames. He squatted down and made quick work of extinguishing the fire.

Once it was only slowly cooling embers, he sat on the floor with his back to it, as he watched Bella laying on the couch. She had her hands over her eyes and a giant smile on her face. He grew a smile to rival hers as she peeked at him through her fingers.

As the sound of the fire ceased to fill the room, their awkward laughter quickly took its place.


	21. Chapter 21

Charlie stood stock still. Aside from a twitch that was starting in his right eye, every muscle in his body had gone rigid.

There was a giant wolf in front of him. A giant wolf that used to be Jacob Black. He and Leah Clearwater had arrived at his door holding hands with looks of apprehension on their faces. Before he could ask them any questions, they dragged him into the woods in his backyard and Jake began to strip.

They were telling him that everything was going to be okay and that this was all to help him, and then in the blink of an eye Jake erupted into a giant wolf.

Charlie could barely hear Leah calmly trying to explain everything and he could hardly see the big brown wolf as it laid down on the ground to seem less threatening. His mind was racing a thousand miles a minute. Everything he knew was a lie, his whole perception of the world had been shattered.

If the son and daughter of his two lifelong friends where a part of this, there's no telling how many were out there. His mind snapped back to the present at the sound of his daughter's name.

"What's Bella got to do with this?" Leah looked towards the wolf, unsure if she should be the one to say anything about it. Jake went further into the woods to shift back and get dressed before he emerged with his hands up to appear non-threatening.

"She's not like us, she's human." Charlie ran his hand over his face to calm down before he finally turned to look at Jake. They locked eyes and Charlie sighed in defeat. They were just as wide and brown as they had been the day he was born.

Charlie remembered the first time he looked into them. He had been the third person to ever hold Jacob, after his parents. The first thing he ever said to him was "Your eyes are just like my daughters. Big, brown, and full of wonder. You two have got your whole lives ahead of you. You're gonna take the world by storm. Just try not to give your dad too much trouble." Baby Jake had let out a soft giggle at that last line. Charlie chuckled too. "Oh no. You're gonna be a handful, aren't you?" To that, he laughed louder and kicked his feet, telling Charlie everything he needed to know.

Jacob's eyes were harder now. He had grown up, endured hardships. He'd lost that innocence and naivety. He was smarter and more responsible. There was still some warmth in his eyes, though, they weren't cold and empty. Which meant whatever he knew, and whatever he'd seen, hadn't taken the joy out of his life, which Charlie was grateful for.

"Okay. So what then, she knows about this? For how long? And where is she?" Jacob hesitated on his last question, which made him start to worry all over again. "Jacob, where is Bella?" Jake and Leah gave each other a long look before Jacob sighed and hung his head low. "I don't know." Leah reached out and grabbed Charlie by the elbow before he advanced on Jacob. "Just give us a second and we'll explain everything." They both turned to Jacob expectantly. He was rubbing the back of his neck. He looked to Leah with panic in his eyes. "I don't even know where to start." "At the beginning." Charlie offered in a calmer voice. They all took a moment and sat down together on a fallen tree.

"You remember the stories we tell at every bonfire, the Quileute legends? Those aren't just stories. They're our history. When our ancestors first encountered the Cold Ones, these pale bloodthirsty monsters that were killing their people, they were blessed with a connection to the spirit wolf that gave them the ability to fight back. It made them strong and fast enough to kill those creatures and protect their land. That ability ran through their veins and they passed it on through every generation."

Charlie let out another loud sigh as he ran his hands through his hair. He'd heard those legends off and on since he was fifteen, he knew them by heart. Sarah Black had recited them like bedtime stories to all three of her children and Bella whenever she spent the night. He never thought of them as false, he believed that they where the history of the Quileute people passed down from generation to generation. But taking them at face value, instead of symbolic or metaphoric as he had all his life, It almost seemed obvious.

"We aren't born werewolves. It only happens in response to their kind. It's like our bodies are reacting to a virus. When a cold one is near, we can feel it. We sense the danger and our bodies change. We get this fever and at the end of it, we've changed into these creatures that can fight off the threat. We can protect our people."

Charlie let everything he'd just said sink in for a little bit before he finally asked the question he wanted to get to. "How does Bella fit into all of this?" Jacob took a moment to figure out how to best explain it before he dived back in.

"The Cullens are cold ones, or what you'd call vampires. They've been here before when my grandfather was the Chief and the Alpha. They claimed that they were different from the others of their kind, that they meant no harm. They didn't feed on humans, only from animals, and they wanted to live as normal of a life as they could. We made a treaty with them. They could live in town and we'd each stay on our side of the border. As long as they kept to themselves, didn't hurt or turn anyone, and didn't drink from humans, we wouldn't attack.

They left before my father was born, and they returned three years ago. The treaty was still in place, but their presence kick-started the change. By the time they left again, there were five already turned and three starting to get the fever."

Charlie had always thought the Cullens were a little weird. They were nice enough and contributed to the town, though they seemed to keep to themselves. When Bella had first started getting close to them, he'd been more focused on her having her first boyfriend than the family itself. Jacob took a deep breath and shot an apprehensive look at Leah. He knew this was going to be the hardest part to digest for him. He decided to just rip it off like a band-aid.

"Bella was their friend, she loved them. She knew who they were and what they were and she loved them anyway. She wanted to be like them. It's one of the reasons why they left because they didn't want her to be one of them. Outside of it being against the treaty, I guess Edward didn't love her the same way she loved him. But the damage was already done. They'd encountered other vampires when Bella was with them, and one of them went after her. She ran to Phoenix to keep you safe, and the Cullens managed to kill the one that hurt her, but Bella got banged up in the process. The other two waited until after the Cullens were gone. One of them showed up first, unaware that Bella wasn't defenseless. When we killed him, the other one ran to Seattle and started killing and turning people to make her army. Vampires that are just turned are extremely dangerous. They're the strongest they'll ever be, and extra volatile. She brought her army here, to kill us wolves so that she could get to Bella, but it didn't work out for her. We killed her army and she died without having ever laid a finger on Bella. That was this morning."

Charlie shot up from the tree they were seated on and began to pace. He remembered the fight they had the night she left for Phoenix. The call he got a few days later, that she'd fallen and was in the hospital had scared him half to death. She'd always been clumsy, and though he never thought too much about how she'd always seemed to get hurt when she was with them. It was partially because he'd been distracted by his gratitude towards Carlisle for always patching her up for free. Now all he could think about was what horrors she must have seen. The number of lies she'd told him was staggering. He was starting to fear that he didn't know her at all.

He turned back to ask them all the questions that were bouncing around in his head. The last thing Jacob had said was still at the forefront of his mind.

"This morning, you guys fought an evil vampire army that was trying to kill my daughter." Jake and Leah stayed silent, knowing he wasn't so much asking for confirmation as he was trying to grasp it all by saying out loud. "You killed them all before they could even touch her."

"Not all of them." Leah offered a clarification, grabbing his attention. Jacob quickly elaborated to combat the panic that was seeping into his expression. "Bella made a deal with one of them. Some of the vampires refused to fight us. They either left or fought against their leader. We killed all the ones that advanced on us and didn't heed our warnings. The leader is also dead. The only vampires that remain in the area are ones that we know will not cause her or anyone else any harm while they're here."

Charlie started pacing again. "How did she make a deal with them? Where did they go? Shouldn't you have killed them, won't they just kill other humans? Why are some of them still here? You said that the leader was dead, not that you killed her. Did her army do that?" He stopped again, though this time it was more like his body had been seized by a shiver of terror as he finally put something together. " The first thing you told me was that you had no idea where Bella was. What happened that you left out, what aren't you telling me?"

Jacob and Leah stood and moved closer to him. Charlie and Jake locked eyes yet again, as Jake tried to speak as calmly as he could.

"At the end of the battle, a vampire took her." Leah grabbed hold of his arm once again, to temper his reaction as she continued. "She's safe. The vampire means her no harm."

"How do you know that!" Charlie raised his voice for the first time since all of this had started. His voice cracked and his shoulders sagged like he'd just lost all of his energy. They stood in silence as his words traveled through the trees, and some birds took their leave at that the disturbance.

Jacob squeezed his eyes shut, reminding Charlie of all the times he'd done it as a child. It was always before revealing what was, back then, a rather adorable secret. It gave Charlie some comfort and brought his heart rate back down a little.

"I don't know how to explain this, really. It's sort of a wolf thing, an instinct or an energy that I can recognize and understand." Leah rubbed small circles on his back as she took over the explanation.

"We call it imprinting. It's how a wolf finds their soulmate, their perfect match. One look and the two are bonded. We don't know much about vampires, outside of how to fight and kill them and some of the stories Bella's told us, but we assume it's a similar concept."

Charlie rubbed at his temples as he tried to find a rational thought to grab onto. Everything was swimming around in his head and he felt like he was going to drown. Jacob was doing slightly better. Having gone through everything had left him in a state of dejection.

Leah looped arms with both men and began to guide them towards the house. "What are you doing?" Charlie asked softly as he walked alongside her. "We're getting in your car and going to the res. There is a cookout going on, to celebrate our victory in battle and everyone returning home. All of the wolves, their imprints, and the elders are there. There's good food, and a shit ton of answers to all of your questions from people who are probably better equipped to answer them."

Charlie let out a small chuckle as he dipped into the house to grab a few things and joined them at the cruizer. He took a moment to give Jacob a small smile and to pat him on the back of the head like he'd always done. Jacob gave a small smile in return that grew into a smirk as Leah called shotgun.

The party was in full swing when they arrived. Jake and Leah made a beeline for the food, leaving Charlie at the front of the house. He took everything in, from the music playing in the backyard to the large amount of shirtless young men stuffing their faces and the handful of them snuggled up to a woman. They were all laughing and joking with each other, welcoming Jacob and Leah into the conversation.

"Chief." Charlie turned at the sound of his best friend's voice calling him their shared nickname. Billy's eyes were hesitant, matching Harry's right beside him. He could feel the eyes on him from all over the room, as everyone waited to see how he would react to them. Emilly walked forward, grabbing his attention. He made a point to look her in the eyes as she handed him a quickly made up plate and a welcoming smile. He took it and nodded his thanks as he turned back to his friends. He moved to sit alongside them, a teasing smile on his face as he drew out the silence. "Hey, Chief." He finally returned the sentiment and the tension left the room as the earlier conversations started up again. Tears welled up in Billy Black's eyes as they sat together. They ate and talked all night, about everything they could think of.

 **Another chapter out.**

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 **Till then.**


	22. Chapter 22

The sun had set hours ago and the cookout was still going strong. The vibe had shifted, as the elders and Charlie retired to Billy's house. The bonfire was half its original size and the pack and imprints had bundled together with pillows and blankets in the living room. There was a movie playing on the television, but everyone was engaged in their own quiet conversations.

Jacob and Leah had taken it upon themselves to clean up the kitchen and put away the leftovers. Sam had retreated to the backyard after watching the two laugh and flirt with each other as they cleaned. He watched the fire as he thought about the future. Today had been one for the history books. There was so much that happened, and the day wasn't even over yet.

He looked up to find the full moon shining down on him from a clear sky. The sound of approaching footsteps pulled his attention away from the stars as Jacob took a seat next to him.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Jacob asked.

Sam took a breath and got his thoughts together. "How did you know?"

Jake gave a half-hearted shrug. "I could feel it."

"You've been doing that more and more lately, recognizing my intentions out of wolf form."

"Your my alpha, aren't I supposed to be in tune to you?"

Sam shook his head lightly. "You're supposed to feel an alpha order, but feeling them before I make them is not common."

Jake stayed quiet. He could still feel him now, except it didn't feel like an alpha order. He wasn't overcome with the signature tenor of Sam's command, but rather comforted by the presence of his loyalty, which was a specific tenor he'd never felt from him before.

"It's probably because you're rightfully an alpha yourself."

Jake shook his head, quick to object. "My grandfather was an alpha. That has nothing to do with me."

Sam fixed Jacob with a look of amusement. "Your grandfather was alpha of his pack and chief of this tribe. Your father is the chief, and would have been the alpha of his generations pack, had they been needed. It's not just your namesake that makes you the successor, it's your blood. It's who you are. You're not just getting the title, you're worthy of it, Jake."

"You're the alpha, Sam."

"Only because I was the first to turn. You were too young to handle at the time."

"And once I did turn?" Jacob countered, causing Sam to laugh.

"You needed time to learn and grow like everyone else. You didn't know anything about this. So you learned about the history and responsibility from the elders, just like I did. I helped you come to terms with your new form and how to control it, which you mastered faster than anyone else in the pack might I add."

"None of that matters. You have the title and you deserve it. You're a great leader and the strongest out of all of us."

"You're the same size as me in our wolf forms." Jake sighed and hung his head. "I know I earned the title alpha. It was an honor and a privilege to be the first wolf of this generation. To teach all of you, and the fact that none of you have died, makes me feel like the most accomplished man in the world."

"And I'm supposed to take that from you?"

"You could never take that from me. I don't want to forget it, and I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be in the pack, here when you need me. I'll just have more time to dedicate to the construction business and to focus on starting a family with Em." Sam could feel the self-doubt through their current connection. It was like they were having two conversations at the same time, one verbal and the other through their wolves.

"I can't do what you do, Sam, and I'm not willing to have a pack member suffer for my incompetence by getting hurt or worse."

"I told you I'm not leaving. We're all still connected, and we always look out for each other." The fire was only embers now. They stayed silent and continued the conversation through their wolves' connection. The loyalty that Jacob had felt was growing stronger, as was his self-confidence in his ability to do a good job.

The moment their positions shifted was subtle, but once Jacob had accepted the role and Sam had acknowledged him as his new alpha, Jacob could feel the power surge through him. He could also feel the loyalty of every one of his wolves as they accepted the shift as well.

"Bout time!" Embry shouted from the living room where every member of the pack had been watching their conversation. Jacob laughed at the site of them all huddled together and watching them over the top and sides of the couch. The two joined everyone in the house as a sarcastic slow clap was started.

Paul and Jared started teasing him about the tedious tasks of organizing patrol schedules and Quil demanded fresh baked muffins and casserole. Leah slid to the outside of the animated group and came to stand by Jake. She slipped her hand in his behind their backs and squeezed. Jakes smirk and Leah are blush were missed by everyone but Sam who settled into the couch beside Emily.

His and Jacob's eyes met across the room, and Jakes eyes flooded with trepidation. Sam looked at Leah, who was watching him as well. He gave them both an easy smile and a mischievous wink. The tension left their shoulders instantly and they were quickly pulled into the main conversation.

Emily gave Sam a quick kiss on the cheek and a proud smile. A fissure had been sealed, and their family felt whole and happy. The clock under the television changed to midnight as the historic day came to a perfect end.


	23. Chapter 23

The full moon was high in the clear sky, bathing the master bedroom of the cabin in silver light. Bella laid in bed wide awake. She and Fred had talked for hours. She told him about her life in Phoenix and he told her about his life as a vampire. Fred talked about what it felt like to transition and Bella told him about her experience being bitten by James.

She had retired to the room after Fred caught her dozing off on his shoulder a few times. She showered and dressed in a large t-shirt that stopped at her knees. She slept for an hour before waking and finding that the moon was in her direct line of sight from the window. She pulled open the curtains and fell back into bed.

The house was completely silent, which Bella was used to. She found herself thinking back on the conversation they had. She told him about her experiences with the Cullens. It wasn't hard for her to talk about them, but it did feel weird to refer to her past relationship and try to apply that to him. They were her only experience with vampires and mating so she had to refer to them.

She explained the animal diet and what she knew of the vampire hierarchy. He asked her if she planned to be a 'vegetarian' like them and she couldn't find an answer. She didn't have any desire to kill, but she couldn't know how she would feel after she was turned. Some vampires did kill for sport and played with their 'food', but they also needed blood to survive. She decided at that moment to wait and see. When he asked her if she wanted him to change his diet she quickly told him no, before he could even finish asking the question.

"I would never ask you to change your diet for me. That's not something that I have any room to judge you on. I can't tell you what to do."

"Can't you?" Fred tilted his head to the side in thought and Bella fought the smile that was growing at the sight of him. "I mean, we're mates. Doesn't that mean that you would be the only person I'd be willing to change for?"

Bella shook her head and brought her bottom lip in between her teeth. "I don't think that's fair. You shouldn't have to change for me. We're mates for a reason. We're supposed to be compatible just the way we are, right?"

There was a small nagging voice in the back of her head that was questioning how easy this all felt. She could still barely believe that Victoria was dead. She knew she wasn't going to come out of that fight alive, but to now be tucked away in the woods with her potential mate. . . it all felt like a dream. Fred especially was too good to be true.

Everything about him was perfect in her mind. She tried to tell herself that most of it derived from him being a vampire. Like Edward warned her when she first found out, vampires were designed to draw in their prey. But, there was something specific about the way he made her feel. The way it felt to have his eyes on her, or when she looked into his and could immediately see the hidden emotions behind the blood red irises.

She sighed softly at the image of him in her mind and turned towards the crack in the door. A sliver of pitch black was her only view into the rest of the house. She couldn't hear anything outside of her quiet breathing. There weren't even the sounds of crickets and scurrying animals to fill out the forest around her. She tried to imagine Fred sitting in the dark living room of the cabin, using his gift to keep all other living things away and listening to her heartbeat. It struck her as odd that he hadn't come back to see her. He would have noticed she was awake by the change in her breathing and the sound of her opening the curtains.

There was a small ball of tension growing in the pit of her stomach. Bella sat up as she actively tried to quell the sudden panic that was rising in her throat. She didn't know where it was coming from, but a part of her could feel the vacant space expanding. She wrapped her arms around her as she tried to keep her breath steady. The silence seemed deafening, she felt like she was in a vacuum. The voice in the back of her head was telling her what she needed, but she held off on indulging it. She squeezed her eyes shut as she told herself that everything was fine.

The distant sound of a mountain lion's roar broke the dam and filled Bella with terror. She was on her feet in an instant. "Fred!" She called out to him with a trembling voice as she ran to the door. Almost immediately, she was enveloped in his arms. All of the tension and fear left her body as quickly as he appeared. Her flood of relief made her weak at the knees. She gasped for breath as she fell into him. He held her back at arm's length and his bright red eyes found her brown ones wide with fear.

"What is it, what's wrong?" His eyes scanned her body at lightning speed, finding nothing physically wrong with her. Fred walked her back to sit on the edge of the bed and bent down in front of her. He placed his hands on her thighs and watched her face closely. She ran her hands through her hair as she caught her breath. "Nothing's wrong." She whimpered with a small shake of her head. "Bella." Fred scolded her with a growl as he moved to sit next to her on the bed. She crawled into his lap and he wrapped his arms around her.

He buried his face into the top of her head as he waited for her to calm down. "I'm sorry," Bella mumbled into his shoulder. He kissed her lightly on the head. "Don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong." He spoke in a soft voice. She shifted in his arms to press her nose into the crook of his neck. She inhaled softly and let his sent ground her. "Did you have a nightmare?" Fred's worried voice drew Bella from the comfort of his arms. She saw the guilt fill his eyes. "Was it Victoria, what I did to her?" He averted his eyes and made to apologize.

"Fred, no." Bella shifted her position again, holding his face in her hands. She was straddling him now. Fred placed his hands on her hips to stabilize her and slowly found her eyes again. "That's not what happened. It wasn't a nightmare, and even if it was, it wouldn't have been about that. What you did to Victoria did not scare me. You saved my life."

Fred gave her a soft nod and a gentle smile in response. She rested her head against his forehead. "I don't know what happened. I woke up and I just felt . . . off. Somehow I knew you weren't here, and then. . . It just kept getting worse and I panicked." He squeezed her sides softly to comfort her. "I didn't mean to worry you. I ran out to feed quickly, but I made sure to stay close. I actually started to feel a little on edge, not being here with you. I was on my way back when I heard you." She sighed and shook her head. Fred watched her chew at her lip and let out a small chuckle as she furrowed her brow.

He was fascinated. She had no way of knowing how truly captivating she was to him. It was effortless and unconscious for her. He wanted her to know how fully she had him, but couldn't just tell her something like that. He doubts he would ever be able to find the words. He wasn't one to express such a thing so easily. Besides, he didn't think she'd believe him anyway. He'd have to show her, which he was equally nervous about, but more than willing to try.

"Were there campers?" Fred blinked back to attention and met her eyes once again. "What?" Bella laughed at his dazed expression. "You went to feed nearby. Were there campers close to here, out of the range of your repulsion?" He shook his head softly and adopted a bashful expression. "No. I actually found a cave nearby and fed on a bear." Bella raised her eyebrows but tried to temper her reaction. "It wasn't that bad. You said the Cullens thought it was not as tasteful but it got the job done. It wasn't really about the taste. I just wanted to stay fed and I didn't want to get too far from you."

A grin spread across her face as she watched him. Minutes passed as they sat there lost in each other's eyes. Fred could hear when her heart rate evened out and moved to place her back in the bed. Bella clung to his shirt collar as her lids got heavy. "Stay with me, please." Fred nodded and turned to remove his dirty, bloodstained clothes. He changed into a pair of pajama pants he found in one of the drawers and slid under the covers.

Bella curled up to him, her head on his bare chest and her arm wrapped around his waist. Fred ran his fingers through her hair softly as he listened to her even breaths. The bright moon caught his attention. He cautiously pulled his bubble of repulsion into only cover the clearing in the woods that housed the cabin. Slowly the sounds of the forest drew closer to them, replacing the silence with crickets and growls from far off. Bella shifted in his arms and let out a soft call of his name. Fred laughed quietly as he listened to her. The bright moon shined down on them for the remainder of the night.


	24. Chapter 24

Riley, Diego, and Bree followed the directions that the wolves gave them to the Cullen's house. They could tell the moment they'd reached the treaty line. The overpowering smell of wolf that they'd been tolerating since the battle began finally lifted. They quickly followed to faint traces of the scent until they came upon a mansion in the woods.

"Woah." Bree sighed as she took in the huge property.

"So, this is how the other side of the undead lives." Diego took note of the large garage on the side.

"Well. . ." Riley climbed the front steps and quickly broke open the front door. "We might as well enjoy it."

They walked into the house and toured the first floor. Each of them was in awe of the pristine furniture and grand architecture. Taking a shower was their first priority. Once they got all of the dirt, venom, and blood off of them, they managed to find clothes that fit them pretty well.

Diego sat on the bed in a room as Bree tried on all of the clothes in the closet. She'd pop out, every now and then, to show him her outfit. He would nod encouragingly and wiggle his eyebrows on occasion. She finally settled on a simple shirt dress and hopped onto the large bed next to him.

"Sorry. I know that was probably boring for you." She mumbled as she pulled all of her hair into a simple braid. Diego stopped her, running his hand through her slightly damp hair and fanning it out over her shoulders. "No. It was cute." She stuck her tongue out at him and was rewarded with a chuckle. "I just . . . I still can't believe it."

Diego turned to her and wrapped his hands around hers. "Can't believe what?"

"All of this. I mean, I died. I'm dead. Some guy killed me and turned me into a freakin' vampire!" Bree shook her head at Diego's silent laughter. "We were supposed to die in the woods today. Those wolves were supposed to kill us." "But they didn't." Diego wrapped an arm around her and Bree rested her head on his broad shoulder. "We get a second chance at life, at a better life."

"My whole life was shit. My mom just saw me as a burden when I was a kid. She kicked me out when I turned fourteen, and I've been on the streets since." Diego kissed her on her forehead and Bree snuggled closer to him.

"I thought all of this was my own personal hell for the longest time." He confessed with a sigh. "Really?" "Yeah. My grandma raised me and my brother. She was always talking about how God would strike us down if we ever sinned. I was terrified when I was younger, but my brother would always tell me it was bullshit." "I didn't know you had a brother." Diego got a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered what he could about his human life. "I worshiped the ground he walked on. I thought he was so cool and I wanted to be just like him." Bree couldn't help but laugh imaging a little Diego. "He died when he was eighteen. He got caught up in the gang that ran our neighborhood. My Abuela used to scream at him, tell him he was turning into the devil's child and that he was dammed. After he died, she got more strict and more religious. She wouldn't let me do anything. When she got sick, I started sneaking out. It got really bad, and I ended up doing some things for the same gang, to help pay for the expenses. She found out about me running in the same crowd as my brother, and she lost it. She told me I was a demon and I was gonna burn in hell. I got so mad at her, I said some horrible things. She kicked me out of the house and that was the last time I saw her." Diego's eyes filled with tears he could never shed.

Bree placed a comforting hand on his back. He pulled her even closer, placing her on his lap. "I was on my own for two days before I was turned. I thought the devil himself had gripped me by the throat and was dragging me down to hell. The only thing I could feel was pain and the only thing I could hear was screaming. When it finally stopped, I was this cold, heartless, red-eyed, blood-drinking monster. I just knew I was a demon. I was convinced I was in hell until I met you."

Bree's head shot up at his last sentence. Her wide, disbelieving eyes met his. They filled with tears as he continued his story. "I was so confused. Everything else about this hell made sense. We were all monsters praying on innocent people and living in the shadows. Then came this girl, she looked like an angel and was so terrified of everything she saw. She hid in the back and kept quiet. I thought there was no way that she deserved to be here. And then she looked at me, with the same blood red eyes as everyone else, and my whole chest ached. Her voice was like the sun. She was funny and smart." Diego brought his hand to the side of her face. "You're my slice of heaven in this hell on earth. Everything else is worth it and as long as I've got you."

Bree let out a sob as she crashed her lips against his. She never thought she'd find someone like him. Someone who fit her so completely and loved her just as much as she loved him. They'd only shared quick kisses before this. Stealing them in what little moments they could find. The most affection they'd ever shown was to hold hands and give pecks on the forehead or cheek in passing.

This kiss, however, was far from chaste. They wrapped their arms around each other, gripping onto their clothes to pull each other even closer. A deep and primal growl escaped from Diego as Bree shifted on his lap to straddle him, responding with a growl of her own. The fabric of their clothes finally gave way and quickly turned to shreds on the floor. Diego pulled her back onto the bed and they spent the night exploring each other and completing their mating bond.

* * *

Riley left the mansion to give the mated couple some privacy. He wandered the woods, making sure he went far enough away that he couldn't hear them. He watched the moonlight illuminate the forest floor around him. Moss grew on every tree, covering the ground and fallen trees in a plush blanket of green. There were small creatures flitting around in the night, the crickets and fireflies surrounded him added to the atmosphere.

He stopped short as he came upon a small rundown cottage. It was made of stone and, like the forest around it, was covered in moss and vines. He walked the cobblestone path to the warped front door and pulled it open slowly, entering the dark and damp place. There was no light inside, the windows were brown with dirt and covered by the greenery. He looked around the modest living space and found small wooden furniture scattered around the living room. There was a fireplace made of the same stone as the outside of the house, and a large chest that sat before it.

He let out a noncommittal noise as he moved towards it. He bent down to open it up and found it full of books, letters, and clothes. Most of the words had faded and the clothing was riddled with holes. At the bottom of the chest, he found a small velvet box. He opened it to find an antique locket. He sat down as he looked at the design. It was a silver oval with an intricate swirling design that surrounded a large ruby in the center. Riley opened it to find it empty. He pulled out the curly lock of red hair that he had taken from Victoria.

He wasn't sure why he had taken it at first. Maybe it was his way of remembering her or reminding himself to never be made a fool of again. Whatever the reason, he knew it would only keep him tethered to the past. He conjured up one more perfect image of her in his mind before he ceased all thought of her and their past.

He placed the hair in the center of the locket and closed it. He returned the necklace to the box and the box to the bottom of the chest. Filling it back up again and closing it, he walked out of the cottage, leaving her behind him. He walked for a while longer before coming across a large river and sitting on a rock at the edge of the woods.

He took a deep breath and let out a quiet sigh. There was so much he couldn't stop thinking about. He'd cut her out of his mind and was focused solely on the future, but he had no idea what that heald for him. He knew that he wouldn't have to brave it alone. Diego was his best friend and had already told him that he would stand with him forever and, based on what he heard back at the house, Bree would be right there beside him. He promised to turn Bella, but odds were that she'd be turned by Fred the next time he saw her. That made the five of them a group. A pack? A coven? A family?

He shook his head, catching a fishing jumping above the surface of the water. It soared high enough for the moonlight to reflect off of its scales before it fell back into the depths of the black water silently. He knew that he was supposed to lead them as he'd done at the camp, but without answering to someone else. It would be his decision, his authority. There was so much he didn't know. Everyone on his team was younger than him. Bella would be the youngest vampire, but she knew the most about the world. He'd have to lean on her for some guidance, but they were all essentially on their own in this huge world. He knew they could make it work. The number of vampires around the world that managed to stay fed and invisible gave him hope that it wasn't that hard to do, but they all lived different immortal lives. He didn't know which one he wanted to live, or if the rest of them would want to live that way as well.

A large bird flew across the sky, cutting in front of the full moon. He laid back on the rock he was sitting on, placing his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. He listened to the sound of the running water and the insects and animals living around him. The roar of a mountain lion and the sound of running paws filled his head as he fell into a peaceful state.

* * *

"What is he doing?" One of the wolves on patrol asked as he watched the vampire they allied with lounging by the side of the river.

"They can't sleep, can they?" Another wolf asked, seeing the same thing through their shared mental connection in wolf state.

"No." The wolf tilted his head as he watched the vampire lay completely still, a calm expression on his face.

"Well, maybe he wants to. I mean if I lived forever and I couldn't sleep, there's bound to be some hours of the day where I have nothing to do and just sit there waiting for the time to pass."

"Dude, that's hella sad." The wolf left the vampire to his pseudo sleep and continued to run his patrol route.

"Yeah, well I'm not a vampire, so I don't have to worry about all that existential shit."

The wolf let out a bark of laughter as he ran through the woods, talking with his pack mate under the full moon.

 **Hey Guys!**

 **Thank you so much for participating in my poll.**

 **It looks like the majority of the votes are for skipping through time and stopping at different times before we meet the Cullens, so that's what I'll do.**

 **I have such a fun time writing this fic and will try to get it out faster for you guys.**

 **Did you like my little nod to the books with the cottage?**

 **Till next time!**


	25. Chapter 25

The sunrise woke Bella the next morning. Her eyes fluttered open, only to squeeze shut at the bright light. She took a breath and slowly opened her eyes again. The entire room was filled with sparkling refracted light. What looked like millions of rainbow slivers danced across the walls and ceiling. A deep rumble shook the granite chest that she was splayed across. It took her a moment to realize that he was laughing. She lifted her head to look up at him, resting her chin on his sparkling chest.

His bright red eyes were full of mirth and matched his lopsided grin perfectly. He ran a shining hand through his golden hair as he let another laugh fall through his full lips. "Good morning." His deep voice was as amused as the rest of him. Bella shifted, yet again, bringing her arms up to cross beneath her chin. She let out a soft yawn and adopted an easy smile. "What's so funny?"

He reached down to pat at her messy hair. "Do you know that you talk in your sleep?" He tugged playfully at her ear. She swatted his hand away before hiding her face in her arms. His body shook with laughter and she rolled off of him, arms still hiding her mortified expression. Moments later, when his laughter had finally subsided, she let her arms fall to her side as she stared up at the ceiling.

The sound of birds chirping caught her attention and she got out of the bed to look out of the window. She could see them flying between the trees. She scanned the forest floor and caught the movement of other small creatures. A brown bunny hopped out of a bush on the side of the house and made its way into the forest. Bella felt Fred's chest press up against her back as he joined her at the window. His diamond skin scattered rainbows across the glass and Bella turned to face him.

"You stopped using your gift." He nodded, looking out into the woods. He could see farther than her and was watching a few elks graze. "I knew you were safe with me. I figured I'd give it a rest." His knuckles brushed against hers and she quickly gripped both of his hands. "How exactly does it work? What does it feel like when you do it? Can you focus the effects in one area or does it always come out from all sides? Can you control the intensity of the effect? How wide can you-" "Ummm. . ." Bella caught his overwhelmed expression and offered an apologetic one of her own. "That was a lot, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. No one's ever asked about it, except Bree." "Bree?" Bella school her face into a neutral expression and Fred pretended not to notice her micro-expressions. "Yeah. She's. . . my friend?" Bella fought to keep the corners of her mouth down as she watched the confusion and uncertainty dance across his face. "That's nice." She offered politely. "Yeah."

"She's probably still down there." He nodded his head in the general direction of Forks. "You think she's still in town?" Bella asked, slightly concerned. "Well, if Riley is down there waiting for you, then Diego's with him. If Diego's there then Bree definitely is." Bella nodded slowly, understanding what he was getting at.

"What were you and Riley gonna do, once he turned you?" Bella squeezed his hands at the slight growl that seeped into his voice. "I don't know. Try and figure all of this out, I guess. Now that I have you, we could be nomads. If Riley, Diego, and Bree are in the same boat, we might as well do it all together." Bella moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Her hands were still wrapped in Fred's, so he moved with her.

"So, the five of us are a coven?" "Maybe. We can figure it all out when we're down there and can talk to them. But we won't do that until I'm a vampire, so." Fred nodded thoughtfully before looking up to see Bella's wide and expectant eyes. "Now? Right now?"

Fred's eyes got comically big at the thought of biting her. He knew that he had to do it. He wanted to be the one to do it, to turn her. He just couldn't bear the thought of being the one to put her through the hell of transitioning. Bella stood and placed her hands on his shoulders. He gripped her waist and looked her in the eyes to calm down. "Tonight?" She propositioned.

He wrapped his head around it, looking through the window to see the sun ascending to the center of the sky. "Okay. Well, what do we do?" Bella quirked an eye at his question. "It's your last human day. What do you want to do?" She knew exactly what she wanted, but she refused to breach that subject now. She'd come back to it later. "Um. what's there to do in the woods?" She wondered out loud. Fred thought back to his hunt and knew what they'd do. "There's a lake. It's at the bottom of a waterfall and bleeds into a river."

A wide grin spread across her face. She quickly left his side and searched the house for a bathing suit. She found two pairs of swim trunks and tossed the larger pair to Fred before finding a small t-shirt to wear with hers. Fred changed, putting on a t-shirt as well, before walking out to see Bella making a picnic for herself. He put his shoes back on and opened the front door.

He stood on the porch for a few minutes. He caught the distant sound of the water and knew which way to go. He also pushed out a small dome of repulsion about five feet in diameter. Bella walked out of the house, ready to go. He felt as she passed through his dome, a small shiver running up his spine. He watched her for any signs of discomfort. She smiled up at him, unbothered, and tightened the straps of the bookbag she was wearing. "Ready?"

He scooped her up and took off.


	26. Chapter 26

Fred stopped running and put Bella down. She gave him a confused look, as they were still in the thick of the woods. He gave her an encouraging smile and pointed her in the direction of the break in the trees. She quietly and carefully trudged along until she passed the last tree. The water of the lake shined a magnificent blue.

Bella's eyes widened as she finally understood why Fred had her go out first. There were a few dear lapping up water on the other side of the large lake. Bella quietly made her way closer to the water, placing her bag on the ground and slipping out of her shoes. She made it to the edge of the water and placed her feet in, eyes glued on the animals in their natural habitat.

Fred leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing and watched Bella lazily kick her feet out. The wide smile on her face made him chuckle silently. She was a gorgeous woman. Her rich brown hair shined auburn in the sun. It fell down her back in waves and complimented her milky complexion very well. He could imagine her skin being a few shades lighter and sparkling in the sun as he did.

One thing he had a hard time imagining was her eyes. He loved her rich brown irises and wondered how different they would look when they were blood red. He knew that she wouldn't lose the depth and emotion that he got lost in every time he looked at her. He was still a little fascinated by how unbothered she was when she looked into his eyes. He never saw a moment of hesitation, fear, or judgment when she looked at him.

She turned to meet his gaze and reached her hand out in his direction. He pulled his repulsion into himself, hoping that his vampire aura wouldn't cause the animals to flee on instinct. Once he'd met her at the edge of the water and taken his shoes off as well, he slowly sat down beside her.

His arm brushed against hers and quickly raised goosebumps. She ducked her head, letting her hair cover her blushing cheeks. They watched the dear drink for a little while longer before they stopped and trotted off in the opposite direction of them. Bella was quick to begin to wade into the water. Fred took another moment to watch her before catching up.

The water was cold and refreshing with the sun beaming down on them. Bella took small steps along the pebbled floor. The waterfall was about forty feet high. Bella watched the water come down, bouncing off of jagged edges that poked out of the cliffside. Turning to see what Fred was doing, her foot slipped on a loose pebble and she fell into the water.

For two seconds she was fully submerged in the four-foot deep water. Her face hit the floor right as she was pulled up to the surface by two ice-cold hands. Bella could tell he was saying something to her, but between the roar of the waterfall and the water in her eyes, she hadn't the slightest idea what it was. Once she'd coughed up the water she'd swallowed and gotten her hair out of her face, she was met with his adorably concerned face.

She couldn't help but laugh at his furrowed eyebrows and sad eyes. "That was embarrassing." She chuckled, hoping to make light of the situation. Fred pulled her into his chest and bent down, bringing his lips to her ear. "Are you okay?" He asked again, having figured out that her lack of response earlier was because she couldn't hear him. He watched as her skin turned pink, quite impressed that she could still blush while shivering. She nodded, slowly catching her breath. She turned back toward the waterfall, keeping a tight grip on Fred's hand. He wrapped his arm around her waist and walked with her.

When they reached the falling water, Bella reached her hand out, testing how hard the water fell. She found it not too harsh and quickly stepped directly under it. A squeal of delight left her lips as she danced around. Fred dipped under the water, enjoying the feeling against his granite skin. Bella popped out on the other end and leaned against the rock, looking out at the lake through the curtain of white water.

Fred blocked her view, removing the space between them and trapping her between the rock wall and his hard chest. She looked up to find his eyes darkening, a look of longing on his face. She watched his eyes dip to her lips as his hands came up to cup her face and grip her waist. She reached her arms around his neck, bringing them closer together.

"Fred." She spoke his name softly and with longing, knowing that he would be able to hear her. He quickly closed the distance between them, bringing their mouths together for the first time. Bella's whole body was on fire instantly. Her grip on him tightened as she got lost in the feeling. His lips were impossibly soft, for how hard the rest of his body was. He was always gentle with her, but she knew his skin had no give. His lips, however, molded to hers perfectly. They were warm and sweet and intoxicating.

She pulled away after a long while and was immediately hit with the sound of the water. It was as if she'd lost her hearing during the kiss. Fred's eyes were even darker now, though his goofy grin seemed to contradict with their black intensity. He brushed his nose against hers playfully before capturing her lips again, this time poking his tongue out to get a taste of her. Bella moaned into his mouth, pulling at the hair on the nape of his neck. His hands quickly scooped her up, pressing their chests together. Bella wrapped her legs around his waist as he pressed her against the rocks again.

They stayed in that position for even longer. Bella rested her head against the rock as she caught her breath. She looked up at rushing water as Fred laid his head against her chest. There was no stopping the smile on her face. She looked down to see a matching grin on Fred and they both burst into laughter.

* * *

They'd made their way out of the water and basked in the midday sun to dry off. Bella was lounging on a towel as she ate the food she packed. Fred laid in between her legs, resting his head on her stomach.

"What's your favorite food?" He asked suddenly.

Bella took her time chewing before answering. "Hmmm. . . Maybe pasta, ravioli? Definitely Italian." Bella placed the rest of her food back in her bag and began running her hands through Fred's damp hair.

"How about you? Do you remember?" He closed his eyes to the sensation of her nails against his scalp. "Not really. I tried to eat a pizza after I was turned. It tasted like dirt." Bella giggled at the disappointment in his voice.

"That's not funny!" Fred objected. Bella clamped her mouth shut to keep the laughter in, though her bouncing belly poking him in the back of the head gave her away.

He turned around in an instant and brought his wiggling fingers to the sides of her stomach. Bella screamed and tried to squirm away from his tickling. He pinned her down, bringing both of her hands above her head before he dipped his hand under the hem of her shirt and started his assault again.

Bella laughed until there were tears in her eyes. Fred released her hands and placed his elbows on either side of her bright red face. She found his eyes, once she'd calmed down, peering down at her inquisitively. She sighed contently, watching him watch her.

"What else do you want to do today?" Bella leaned her head against his arm as she thought about it.

"I want to watch the sunset. I know it'll be even more beautiful, once I'm turned, but I never really made a point to look at it while I was human." He nodded at her, already deciding on the perfect place to watch it from. "Anything else?"

Bella brought her bottom lip between her teeth as her eyes traveled down the expanse of his bare chest, stopping at the hem of his swim shorts. Fred could hear and smell her body's response to her new train of thought. His eyes were black in an instant. He dropped his arms and pressed his weight onto her. He ran his nose along the crook of her neck, stopping at her pulse point and placing the softest kiss on her jumping vein. Pulling back, he met her half-lidded eyes with a sly smile and teasing red eyes. Bella rolled out from under him and grumpily ate the rest of her food as he laughed behind her.

* * *

Fred scooped her up again and brought her to the top of the cliff that the waterfall was on. He ran her further down the plateau before placing her at the edge of the cliff. She leaned into his side, letting her feet dangle over the edge. The sky was free of clouds, and they were well above the treeline, giving them the perfect unobstructed view.

The bright yellow sun was just nearing the horizon. The edge of the sky was a deep purple that blended seamlessly into a saturated red-orange. Bella rested her head against Fred's shoulder and he rested his head atop hers. They sat in silence as the colorful sky shifted in pigmented hues until the sun had dipped past the tree line, leaving the sky a beautiful dark blue.

"Thank you," Bella whispered into the night.

"Anytime," He offered in response, placing a kiss on the crown of her head. "Always."

 **Hey, guys!**

 **Long-time, no post!**

 **So sorry about that.**

 **Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into a schedule soon.**

 **I have a couple of chapters that I'm debating just dropping all at once to catch up.**

 **Regardless, I'll definitely be more active from now on.**

 **Promise!**

 **Well, there you go.**

 **A cute little last-day-alive date.**

 **Just a heads up, next chapters gonna get steamy.**

 **This story is rated M for a reason, after all.**

 **I will try to keep it tasteful, though.**

 **Till next time!**


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